OMGWTFBBQ FCBD!!!

Hey guys! Guess what! It's one of my favourite days of the year today! It's a nerdy holiday of sorts. Free Comic Book Day! What is FCBD, you ask? Let me tell you.

One day a year, always the first Saturday in May, comic book stores across Canada, the United States, and around the world, give away free comic books to anyone who comes in! Comic book companies go to the effort of creating a selection of comics specifically for this special day. It's all very exciting.

This year I'm most interested in Marvel's Infinity free comic, which is supposed to lead into this summer's big Avengers event. There's also a special Walking Dead comic I'm interested in, and probably a bunch more cool stuff. I'd say I'm being vague about the selection to get you interested enough to go, but really I just haven't done a lot of research. Big fails. But still! Be interested! Go! Comics are fun!

In other news, it's a special day for another reason. I've got three birthday shout-outs for today. It's my little cousin True's bday. And also the not-so-little-anymore Acacia's bday. And last, but definitely not least, it is the birthday of the woman who brought me into this world. Happy birthday to my amazing Mom! (Who probably won't read this so I need to remember to talk to her after work today...)

Today is also Doctor Who day, so don't forget to tune into Space (or BBC/BBC America) tonight for a new episode, The Crimson Horror. There's only two more episodes after this for this season! Then we've gotta wait all the way to November for the 50th anniversary special. At least it should be amazing and worth the wait.

In no way related to the previous topic, I'm feeling excessively tired and sore from a run yesterday. I definitely pushed myself a little harder than I realized. Ran the university hill with my canine roommate. I thought I might just die when I got up this morning. But it'll be worth it if I manage to get myself back into shape. Anyway, I'm off to work. I hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday!

Great Week to be a Geek

It's a great week to be a geek. I mean, most weeks are good weeks to be geeks, you know, unless it's sports week in high school, but this one is particularly great.

Reason #1: New Doctor Who! TODAY! Seriously, guys. It does not get much better than that. It could be a terrible week otherwise, and it would STILL be a great time. It's been a few months since we've had our last dose of the Doctor, and I couldn't be more excited to have it back! After everything that's been happening in the show, I need to know what's next! And the 50th anniversary is coming up and THAT is looking like it's gonna be pretty fantastic.

Reason #2: New Game of Thrones! Season 3 starts TOMORROW! I managed to get myself all caught up for the new season, so bring it on! Now I can feel out with the best of 'em as the episodes air. I'm very interested in seeing what's gonna happen next. The season finale was pretty crazy.

Reason #3: The season finale of The Walking Dead! Also tomorrow! This one I'm not actually caught up on though, so I'll just have to assume it's super exciting. At least now I can watch the whole of season 3 all at once and not have to wait a week for a new one. But still, I need to make sure I'm caught up on this one for next season.

Sundays have been a pretty great TV night... Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Once Upon A Time. Plus Revenge, and while it lasted, 666 Park Avenue. Anyway...

Reason #4: Actually not TV-related, but this week was pretty awesome for comics too. Age of Ultron #3 was out this week, and I've been pretty unsure about that one so far, but the last page was somewhat shocking and has definitely got me hooked now. Uncanny Avengers has really brought up its game this week and I definitely recommend giving it a read, however it would help if you've read Remender's run on Uncanny X-Force prior to reading this. New characters and the beginnings of some really interesting plot points.

Astonishing X-Men brought the next chapter of the X-Termination crossover which I'll admit has me wanting to pick up the last few issues of X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse so I don't miss any of the story. Young Avengers is really kicking it up, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Uncanny X-Force seems interesting but also pretty jumbled. The different points really need to come together and make some sense or I might get bored. Wolverine and the X-Men is trying hard, but I'm struggling to stay interested. The current arc just isn't doing it for me. And Ultimate Comics: Wolverine is turning out to be a pretty interesting mini-series. I'm enjoying the story, and the artist is great. Even had a fun little cameo by some familiar scientists.

Anyway, those are the main points of geeky interest from my week. What made your week great and/or geeky? Have a great Saturday! And Happy Easter!

Early Morning Rambling

Okay, so, I'm getting really tired of this winter crap. It just keeps dragging on. I know, I know: it's PG. Winter lasts until May some years. But come on! Can't we have spring on time for once? There's green grass and flowers in Vancouver already!

Anyway, that's my rant for this morning. What brought that on is just the fact that I bought this new Jawbone UP and I've been trying to be active and eat better, but it's really not going all that well. I probably shouldn't blame the weather, but I just find it so hard to motivate myself to do something in the cold. I should really just accept that I'm lazy and deal with that problem.

The one sorta-benefit of being lazy is that I've finally been catching up on some of my nerdy pastimes. I've gotten myself all caught up on Game of Thrones for the new season. Can't wait for that! I've also made a tiny bit of progress on reading Mark of Athena. That book is taking me forever to read. And there's no reason for it. It's a good book!

I finished off Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance a couple weeks ago and started playing Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. It's a pretty fun game, but I'm really not far in it yet. I haven't gotten to build anything yet, and that's the part I'm really looking forward to. I spent a large portion of the day yesterday playing Mass Effect 2. It's not my usual kinda game. I'm not very good at aiming, so I usually prefer games that auto-lock on to your enemies. But it's pretty fun anyway. I like story driven games, and this seems to have an interesting story so far.

I've been keeping up on my comics, but I can't remember what came out recently. I forgot to take my usual "this week's comics" photo for Instagram. I know I enjoyed them. There was All-New X-Men, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, Cable and X-Force, and New Avengers. I can't remember what else. Hmmm. I'm a failure of a comic book fan.

Whenever I go to Great White, which is where I buy my comics, I always go look at the Lego. I desperately want to get a few of the sets they've got. All of the Hobbit Lego sets they've got. And the Marvel and DC Superheroes sets. At the Lego store in Vancouver they have even more awesome sets. If I was rich, I'd have a whole big room dedicated entirely to Lego. It would be epic and amazing. But sadly, all I've got are my few little mini-sets.

Anyway! That's my rambling for this week. I will try to come up with something more focused and cohesive for next week. Happy Saturday!

Flaming Bear Powers?

This week was a really great week for comics. After a somewhat disappointing week last week, it was pretty exciting that I had seven new issues and I enjoyed nearly all of them. So just for fun, I'm gonna give you a quick recap of them all. First up we had...

Ultimate Comics: X-Men #23
This is one title I've been struggling with a bit lately. It's become more of a political book and less about the X-Men. I understand that they've gone a new direction with the Ultimate Marvel line, but it's just been somewhat boring for a while now. This issue was a little different. It was sort of a background story with a bit of recap. Nothing terribly exciting happened, but it seemed like it might be setting something else up. I'm hoping this title gets some action going on soon, or I might have to drop it. Next up, we have...

Astonishing X-Men #59
This is another title I'm starting to struggle with a bit. On the one hand, I love the characters. Wolverine, Northstar, Gambit, Karma, Iceman, and Cecelia Reyes are all very good characters. But for some reason I'm just not caring very much. I think part of my problem that the relationship of Northstar and his new husband Kyle is so much the focus that it seems like all we're ever hearing about is their whiny problems. I'm all for relationships in comics, and the fact that it's a gay couple should be cool considering I'm gay myself, but enough is enough. I want some astonishing x-heroics, not astonishingly boring x-drama. Either Kyle is okay with being married to a super hero, or he's not and they can break up. Get it over with. Anyway... Now on to...

Uncanny Avengers #4
Now things start to get better. This was the first new Marvel NOW! title to come out after AvX, but it's also been the slowest one. And by that I mean release-wise, not pace-wise. It seems to keep getting delayed. But it's really good so far! The first story arc just wrapped up, and we've seen the Red Skull become an even bigger threat than he ever was before. A new team of Avengers made up of classics as well as X-Men has formed, and they've set things up to make this a pretty exciting book. The writing is good, the art is good, and the final page was a very big WTF moment that I can't wait to see play out. From there, we move on to...

Young Avengers #2
The end of the first issue was a bit of a shocker, and seeing things play out from there has been really fun. This book worried me a bit at first 'cause it's just a little bit hipster, but this issue really turned that around. The art is great, and I can't wait to see where this story is going. And they way artist and writer are working together on this is creating a really fantastic book. This is a shining example of a gay couple in a super hero book, as well. Wiccan and Hulkling make things effortless. It's not a big deal that they are a couple, it's just how it is. The story doesn't have to keep referencing it to remind people like a certain other comic I mentioned earlier. It's only two issues in and I really look forward to this one continuing on. Speaking of continuing on...

Avengers Arena #5
I really love this book. I think I've brought it up a couple times in this blog already. It's Avengers Academy meets the Hunger Games. And it's just so good! Every issue is full of those WTF moments that keep you reading on, and the characters are so interesting. Every issue picks a character to focus on, and it fluctuates between the present events in Arcade's new Murder World, and flashbacks of their lives prior to being captured. Much like Lost. And no one died this issue! That's my only problem with this is that the characters are all very cool, but they're probably going to die before the story is done. Not cool. So then...

Uncanny X-Force #2
I love Betsy Braddock. I'm not sure why. Something about a sexy purple haired psychic ninja just does it for me. And this is really her book. Storm, Puck, Fantomex and Cluster, Spiral and the new mutant girl, Ginny. And the reintroduction of Bishop with crazy flaming bear powers. I'm really not sure what's going on with this book yet, but it's fun to read so far, and I can't wait for the next issue. Finally...

Uncanny X-Men #2
I saved the best for last. I'm loving this book. From the amazing art by Chris Bachalo, to the great writing by Brian Michael Bendis, this book is a lot of fun. We've got Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, and Magneto, all dealing with broken mutant powers and being on the wrong side of the law. They've recruited some of the new mutants resulting from the end of AvX, and they're trying to start the mutant revolution. If you haven't already picked this one up, I recommend it.

So that was my comic book haul for this week. I may not have a future in comic book reviewing, but it was pretty fun talking about them anyway.

It's funny, anything comic-book or sci fi related reminds me of Comic-Con lately, and how extremely excited I am for that this year. Andrea has to put up with random text messages from me being all "I'M SO EXCITED!" But luckily she is as well so it's not so weird. Anyway! Happy Saturday! May all your weekend plans be merry!

This Went a Very Different Direction Than Intended...

So, this week I was gonna blog about the new comics I picked up on Wednesday, but when I tried to do that, I realized I barely remember reading them. That either means they weren't all that exciting, or I was too tired to really take it in when I read them in bed that night.

So, what else can I blog about? I have been watching Game of Thrones finally. I started a few weeks ago. I finally signed up for HBO and I've been recording the second season as it aires, and I managed to find the first season online. I'm only two episodes in to season two right now, but it's very good.

What I've learned so far: the Starks are fairly naive which gets them in trouble, the Lannisters are pretty awful, and someone really needs to kill Joffrey, and there's a lot of cool mythology that needs to be explored. White walkers? Dragons? The weird stuff going on with Bran? I'm pretty excited to continue on with it and see what happens.

While on the subject of good TV, I have also signed up for AMC, which means I can finally watch new episodes of the Walking Dead! Sadly, though, I had set up the first eight episodes of season three to record when they had the marathon the other day leading up to the ninth episode, but my PVR decided to die that weekend while I was in Vancouver, so none of it recorded. Which means finding it online. Which isn't difficult, just annoying when I could be watching it in HD on my TV.

In other news, last weekend when Comic-Con badges went on sale, I had way better luck than I thought possible! I was standing there at work waiting for the link to go live on the badge sales website at 9am, which also happens to be when the bank opens. Convenient right? Luckily, it wasn't busy, so when the link went live, I clicked it both on my work computer and on my phone. And then sat there and waited. It was about 5 minutes of loading before I got a weird error message. So I refreshed, which you're not supposed to do. No luck still. So I clicked on the address bar and hit enter, and it started loading again. All wasn't lost! And finally when I got into the waiting room, I was number 147 in line! Apparently I was lucky, 'cause at the same time my phone popped up with me sitting 6489th or so in line.

Two minutes later, the waiting room let me through and I was on my way! I managed to secure 4-Day with Preview Night badges for myself AND Andrea! So we are on our way to Comic-Con and getting the full experience once again! I really can't wait to start planning our trip! Andrea and I were talking about last year and our odd theme of accidentally stalking Chris Hardwick the whole trip, and how we're curious what this year's theme will be. Hopefully something fun and exciting again!

The other thing this has made me think about is that I really need to eat my ass in gear saving money! I still owe money from last year's trip, plus my oddly expensive summer, so it's time to really start sticking to a strict budget so I can afford flights and whatnot. I already have US cash saved for spending money, but the other expenses need to be prepared for.

I am really excited right now! And it's still five months away! That's not all that far away though... Oh boy. Anyway! Time to go to work! Have a great weekend!

Uuuuuh WTF?

So! Here we are back to our regular schedule. Except... I am getting sick. So I'm not really sure I'm up to this. Lets see if I can ramble coherently long enough to make this work. Also, let's see if I can go long enough without being interrupted to get anything done. Seems like everyone I know is coming in to Starbucks this morning. Anyway, enough commentary, time to get started.

I had this whole post half written on the new Marvel NOW! titles spinning out of AvX, but I got bored, so here's attempt number two. I'm thinking maybe Ke$ha isn't the best music to be listening to for creative inspiration. Oh well. So what do I feel like talking about then?

Avengers Arena! This week a brand new comic launched, and I've been a little bit wary of this one. The whole idea of it is basically the Hunger Games with 16 of the Marvel universe's teenage superheroes. Classic X-Men villain Arcade has kidnapped a whole bunch of Marvel kids and trapped them in Murder World, where he is basically a god, even against some extremely powerful super kids.

The characters are about half and half new and old. There's Nico and Chase from Runaways, Mettle, Hazmat, Reptil, and X-23 from the recently ended Avengers Academy, plus Darkhawk and maybe some others from random places, and then a bunch of new characters apparently from the Braddock Academy, the British version of Avengers Academy or the Jean Grey School. There are no young X-Men characters, which is mentioned in the story as Arcade says "Wolverine's school has better security" or something along those lines.

The first issue is mostly setup, Arcade explaining who he is, what's going to happen, letting them know only one will survive, and all the usual exposition to let the reader in on what's going on. And then the issue ends with a total WTF moment. Arcade tells the kids he'll start the killing, but they have to pick one of them to die. No one says anything, but Hazmat goes ballistic attacking him, so he picks her, but at the last minute Mettle says he's the weakest so it should be him so Arcade points at him... and he EXPLODES! Blood everywhere, all over his girlfriend, Hazmat. Dubya. Tee. Eff. Just messed up. I HATE when the kid characters die, 'cause they are my favourites, but I am entirely hooked on this book. Ugh!

Anyway, work time! Hopefully this was acceptable. If not... too bad. I'm sick.

Failed Blogger

Sorry guys. I'm a failed blogger. What's it been since my last post? Oh wow. Over a month! Worse than I thought! Oops.

I have excuses! My usual Saturday posts have begun to be harder to manage. USUALLY I catch the bus to work on Saturdays, which puts me there an hour early, so I blog in Starbucks before my shift. But my wonderful roomie/bff changed her schedule around so she works same time as me and gives me a ride.

The other excuse is that I've been out of town two of the last three weekends. A certain handsome man has kept me more than a little distracted, so once again, blogging has suffered. But really, I think y'all (yes, I just said y'all) want me to be happy so getting my romance on is probably an acceptable excuse.

So what have we missed out on? Probably plenty. Marvel NOW! is officially rolling out, and the changes are pretty exciting! I'm particularly enjoying All-New X-Men, and Uncanny Avengers is giving a lot of WTF moments and it's only two issues in. I'll try to do a post giving a rundown of the new state of Marvel comics soon.

I've also been obsessed with the new Nintendo 3DS game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Paper Mario is one of my all time favourite game series, and this new game does not disappoint. I was concerned at first, but like I said, I've been somewhat obsessed with it, so it's gotta be good. There's a collecting aspect to it, which automatically hooks me.

I've finally started reading again too! I finally finished The Serpent's Shadow, which I started forever ago, and I've read the three e-book companions to the I Am Number Four series, and FINALLY started Mark of Athena. Mmmm Greek/Roman mythology. My favourite!

So yeah! That's the basic rundown. I'll have to do a proper review of something soon. But for now, work time!

A Brave New World?

So... This week was the finale of Avengers vs. X-Men. And what an end! If you are planning on reading it, spoiler warning! Read no further.

Picking up from the end of the last issue (where Cyclops took all the power of the Phoenix, killed Professor Xavier, and went all Dark Phoenix), Cyclops/Phoenix is laying waste to the entire planet, battling the Avengers and X-Men on a global scale. No one seems able to do anything to him as he causes cities to crumble, volcanoes to erupt, and even the ocean to burn.

The good guys have a secret weapon though. Hope, of the X-Men, and Scarlet Witch, of the Avengers. Their powers seem to be the key. Acting as yin and yang. The two of them are the only ones able to touch the Phoenix. As they duke it out, Cyclops has a vision of Jean Grey through the fire, telling him to let go.

Hope and Scarlet Witch finally manage to defeat Cyclops, and as the Phoenix leaves him, it moves to its intended host and possesses Hope. She zips around the globe putting out the fires and returns to the site of the battle to announce that she is the White Phoenix, but she is interrupted by the Scarlet Witch, who tells her she was never meant to possess this power, but to get rid of it.

The two join hands and together proclaim, "No more Phoenix." And with that, the power of the Phoenix is dissipated across the globe, undoing the spell the Scarlet Witch cast years ago, ending the "No more mutants" proclamation and causing new mutants to pop up around the globe.

The issue ends with Cyclops in custody, but not entirely ashamed of his actions because he believes bringing about the return of mutants is worth the price, sounding very much like Magneto.

So this event finally brought things full circle from the House of M event years ago. Mutants are back. But what does that mean for the Marvel Universe? Will the long depowered mutants get their powers back? (Will by beloved Sofia Mantega become Wind Dancer once again?!) Or is it just "new" mutants now? And how will the world respond to this upsurge in the mutant population after such a terrible global attack in the name of mutant kind? Only time will tell. I can't wait for Marvel NOW! to begin!

Comic Books Update

Avengers vs. X-Men. It's the big thing in Marvel comics right now. The cosmic Phoenix Force has made it's way to Earth, and the Avengers and X-Men are on opposite sides of the coin as to what this means. The X-Men believe the Phoenix has returned to bring about the rebirth of the mutant race. The Avengers believe that the Phoenix has come to burn away what doesn't work, possibly all life on the planet. And so the saga begins.

Both teams believe the Phoenix has come for Hope, the first new mutant birth since the decimation of mutant kind. Both teams try to protect her from each other, but in the end, the Phoenix ends up split between five of the most powerful X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor.

At first, it seems like the X-Men were right. The Phoenix Five go about changing the world, ending war, famine, and general suffering on a global scale. But the Avengers are wary of them anyway, and are eventually proven right when the Phoenix begins to corrupt the Five. Namor is first to lose it, and is defeated by the combined effort of the Avengers. Upon his defeat, the Phoenix force leaves him and strengthens the other four. Next, Spider-Man manages to turn Colossus and Magik against each other and they defeat each other, leaving only Cyclops and Emma Frost in possession of the Phoenix Force.

Cyclops and Emma are both showing signs of corruption, Emma demanding to be treated like a god, and Cyclops unwilling to accept that the Avengers oppose him. A huge battle ensues where the Avengers and X-Men team up against Cyclops and Emma. Cyclops ends up killing his old teacher and mentor, Charles Xavier, and he attacks Emma Frost, taking her portion of the Phoenix by force, and the last page ends with Cyclops being completely corrupted by the Dark Phoenix.

The final issue is out next week, and it's sure to change the status quo of Marvel Comics. What will happen to Cyclops? How will the Avengers and X-Men move on from this? What will be the significance of Hope and the Scarlet Witch in this whole thing? I can't wait to find out!

SDCC 2011 Day One

So! At long last, I am posting my Comic-Con blog! I'll try to remember all of the awesome stuff that went on, but no guarantees!

First of all, I'd like to say that Andrea and I definitely underestimated how busy it would be at the convention. It was a constant problem throughout our adventures, and we'll be sure to plan for the crowds in the future. On Thursday when we arrived was the first and possibly largest miscalculation on timing that we had. We got up and ready and took the shuttle to the convention centre at around 8:30am thinking we'd be early enough to get in line for our badges and be on our way in by the time it all opened. Turns out, there were already several thousand people in line, and we had quite the wait ahead of us.

The line was crazy, it wrapped almost the entire way around the convention centre and then doubled back down the waterfront walkway a significant distance. I don't remember exactly how long it took us to get through the line, but I'm thinking it was probably a couple hours at least. The one fun thing about waiting in line was the constant stream of people heading past us toward the end of the line, many of which were dressed in awesome geeky t-shirts or a wide variety of costumes.

Once we made through the seemingly endless line, we got into the building and followed the crowd to the badge pick-up area which was part of a massive tent-like room upstairs in the convention centre. We made it through the crazy mass of people, got our badges, and got our first bunch of free stuff: a giant comic-con bag, two books, and a lanyard to hang our badges on. We, unfortunately, got the Vampire Diaries comic-con bags, but as we made it through a couple of girls asked if they could trade us for our bags. Theirs featured Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, so Andrea and I were all too eager to trade. Win-win!

The place was set up so the badge pick-up and autograph signing, as well as a large sitting area were all in this massive tent-like room which was on the upper floor and more-or less smack-dab in the middle of the convention centre. On either side of this room were all of the halls in which the different panels would be held. Almost the entire bottom floor of the enormous building was the exhibit hall where there were probably thousands of booths dedicated to everything from comic book stores, comic studios, web comics, graphic novels, to movie studios, television studios, toy companies, video game companies, and a whole artists alley. The other part of the lower level housed Hall H, the largest of the halls used for the biggest and most exciting panels.

We really had no idea where to start, so we explored the exhibit hall. It was crazy how many people were there. It was hard to wade through the crowds to see everything. We saw the Marvel booth, but there were so many people that we couldn't really stop and see it. We also saw a replica of the TARDIS sitting at a random booth, got our picture taken with Pikachu, saw some awesome Lego statues, spotted some random celebrities at the Fox booth, and just when we were about to leave the hall to check out some panels, accidentally found Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild, and got posters signed by the six of them. They were all really cool. I loved Felicia Day's comment about the posters, she pointed out that her character had big boobs and said "that's all the artist" as she covered her chest.

We had made an attempt to check out one of the panels earlier in the day but soon realized that we'd miscalculated the lines to get in once again, so we made sure we were extra early to get into the Marvel's Next Big Thing panel. There was a Batman panel before it that we ended up making it into, but I really wasn't overly impressed by it. I'm not a DC comics fan. The only part I actually enjoyed was the sexy Scottish accent from Grant Morrison.

The Marvel: Next Big Thing panel was a lot more interesting. Alex Alonso, CB Cebulski, Greg Pak, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, Daniel Way, Steve Wacker, and David Gabriel were all on stage with moderator Arune Singh. They talked up a lot of what Marvel's got coming our way over the next while, some of which excites me, some of which doesn't. There was talk about the Hulk, and an upcoming Villains for Hire book, and stuff with the FF which all was interesting but they're not really my favourite Marvel titles. What WAS exciting was all the talk about what's coming in the Ultimate line of books, which as prompted me to decide to start collecting all four titles spinning out of Ultimate Fallout. Tlhere are also some new Avengers origin stories coming down the line, and some change-ups happening with Avengers Academy which have me thinking I might just have to start picking that one up again. There wasn't much else to offer, but they did give away a free Hulk comic book which is kinda cool (except I don't really like the hulk...).

After the panel we explored the exhibit hall for a while longer and I got to see Jeph Jacques! My favourite web comic creator! Except there was a giant line. And there was a huge crowd around the Rooster Teeth booth (which Andrea really wanted to see) so we gave up and headed to Hall H to check out another panel that seemed interesting. On our journeys through the convention centre Andrea kept seeing celebrities that I somehow managed to miss. While waiting for the Marvel panel earlier she spotted Jon Heder, but I missed him. I did see the guy who played Pedro, though. And then while wlking through the Exhibit Hall she spotted Bruce Campbell, but I totally missed him. We walked RIGHT BY him.

Te end of our day was spent in Hall H watching a panel featuring a couple of famous directors, John Favreau and Guillermo Del Toro. The one big thing I got out of it? Guillermo swears like a sailor. And there was some awesome exclusive footage from Cowboys & Aliens. It was pretty interesting, although probably moreso to Andrea than to me.

After the panel was over, the convention was closed for the day so we headed back to the hotel to relax after a crazy day. It's actually crazy how tired we were that night. Comic-Con is tiring!


Disclaimer: I am a terrible photographer so please excuse the awful quality and/or content of the included photos.

Why yes, I AM a nerd, thanks!

I am a huge comic books fan.

You're totally shocked, right? Hah, yeah right. There's no surprise there. I'm a huge nerd! Anyway, I love comic books. To be specific, Marvel comics. I have over a thousand, probably around 1200 by now actually, boxed up or spread around my apartment. Which would be fine if I lived alone. Sorry Darcy! (no I'm not.) In the 7-8 years I've been collecting comics, my "pull list" has grown pretty much out of control. Originally I started with only a couple of titles (Exiles and New Mutants), but since then I've expanded to 12-15 titles every month, not to mention special one-shots and limited series. It's crazy.

But what I wanted to talk about, 'cause I really have no one around to listen to me drone on about comics (locally), is a couple that I'm really excited about right now. First up:

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man

The Ultimate Marvel line of comics was launched as a separate continuity from regular Marvel comics to make it easier for new readers to enjoy comics without having to be bogged down by decades of backstory. My favourite title in the Ultimate line is Spider-Man. It's a version of Peter Parker very similar to the original, but still back in high school, not all grown up like the Spider-Man we all know and love.

This title has actually come to an end with the Death of Spider-Man story that recently came out. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed by this. Not only is it one of my favourite comic books, but the title of that final story should be a pretty obvious clue. They killed Spider-Man. Peter Parker is dead.

They did such an amazing job with the story, it was really epic how it all happened, and I really advise you to go read it if you haven't already because even though I'm sad, I can't help but be at awe of the story. It was so tragic, but in the end, Peter Parker dies a real hero (not that there was any denying it before anyway).

The title is relaunching in a few months with a new man behind the mask, and I'm actually really interested to see what's going to happen. The new costume design is really interesting, but there really hasn't been any info revealed about the new Spider-Man. The only info I've heard is of what his motivation is; that Peter's death is to him what Uncle Ben's death was to Peter. Very intriguing... Also of note is that Ultimate Comics: X-Men is finally getting a new start after the dust settles here, and it looks like Johnny Storm, Bobby Drake, and Kitty Pride will all be featured there, so that's pretty awesome.

The second title I'm excited about right now hasn't actually come out yet, but I just read the "Prelude" miniseries today so it's got me pretty much on the edge of my seat wondering what's going on:

X-Men: Schism

The next big X-Men event. X-Men: Schism is a limited series starting in a couple weeks. What I know so far is that there is something bad coming. It's a threat beyond anything the X-Men have ever faced. And in dealing with this threat, Cyclops and Wolverine come to a conflict of opinions that can't be resolved, and the X-Men are all forced to choose a side, dividing the X-Men "forever" (gotta throw the forever in there for dramatic effect).

Part of what has me excited about this event is to see what the heck it is that will cause the split of the X-Men. They are a family, and now a nation, united against all threats to the mutant race. But what could cause them all to turn on each other? It's gotta be something big! And I haven't been disappointed by an X-event yet!

The other part is that it means we'll have separate teams again! I liked the good old days where each book had it's own set of X-Men, with the occasional crossover and/or cameo. The last few years have had the same core characters appearing in every. single. book. I didn't mind when it was Wolverine appearing in every comics 'cause he's awesome, but I'm getting really tired of seeing Emma Frost, Colossus, Kitty Pride, Wolverine, and Cyclops in ALL of the X-Men books, leaving so many characters out in comic book limbo. I'd love to see a unique set of characters in each of the X-books.

After Schism comes to an end, Uncanny X-Men will relaunch with a new #1 issue, and that is where you will find Cyclops and those who choose his side. Those that take the other side will appear in Wolverine and the X-Men. So that is at least two teams that will be totally different. X-Men: Legacy will hopefully continue to focus on it's own team as well. That leaves X-Men and Astonishing X-Men to establish where they will fall after the Schism, plus titles like New Mutants, Uncanny X-Force and X-Factor that could see some shake-ups as well. Oh, and Generation Hope. But I don't really care about that one. At all.

Woo! So that's just SOME of what's going on in comics right now that's got me excited! If I continued, this post would never end, so I'll leave it here, but expect follow-ups to this, 'cause you know, I'm a comic book nerd, so what else am I gonna blog about? Leave a comment below if you've got anything to say about these comic events! I'd like to hear what you've got to say! (and good on you if you actually made it through this whole post!)