SDCC Is Right Around The Corner...

So. San Diego Comic-Con 2014 is right around the corner, and for the fourth year in a row, my excitement is building exponentially as it gets closer! For the last couple weeks Comic-Con's Toucan Blog has been been doing a "Tip of the Day" post every day on all of the things not to be missed at Comic-Con, and that gave me the idea to do a post about what I can't wait for this year.

The first thing I'm excited for doesn't actually have anything to do with Comic-Con itself, but it's one of my favourite things about visiting San Diego. The food! After a long day of exploring the convention centre, there's nothing like grabbing a drink and some delicious food. And my favourite place to do that is a great place in the Gaslamp Quarter that Andrea and I found our first year, La Puerta! I've talked about it before, but it's worth mentioning again. They have fantastic guacamole, and between 3 and 7pm every day, it's Happy Hour! Meaning cheap delicious drinks and food. I can't wait to go back there, and find some great new places to eat!

The next awesome thing I'm excited for is the exhibit hall! The whole place is a madhouse full of awesome exciting things, but crowded with thousands and thousands of people. In particular, I'm looking forward to seeing what's new at the Marvel booth. In 2011 it was decked out for the Avengers, 2012 it was Iron Man 3, and last year they had a SHIELD setup featuring all kinds of cool Marvel Studios props from all of the different movies. With a lot of big Marvel projects on the way, there's sure to be something cool. And there's sure to be tons of other awesome booths to check out, too! All of the comic book companies, TV companies, movie companies, toy companies, and video game companies. Plus all of the smaller booths for webcomics creators and various other awesome things.

I'm also really looking forward to all of the awesome panels! Andrea and I have already booked ourselves for Thursday July 24th at 3:30pm to be in Ballroom 20 for... TEEN WOLF! We've become somewhat obsessed with the show, and we both can't wait to see the ridiculousness of the cast. That and the promise of sneak peaks into what's coming. We've also decided to focus all of our former Doctor Who energy onto getting into the Marvel Studios panel. And I'd love to get into anything else Marvel related, as usual. I'm also hoping to see anything Nerdist or Geek & Sundry to get my Chris Hardwick and Felicia Day fixes, and any good movie panels would be great to see as well.

Besides the exhibition hall and the panels, there's also all of the awesome costumes to see. The cosplayers tend to do a pretty fantastic job, so it's a lot of fun spotting the great ones and getting pictures of/with them. There's also the hunt for free stuff and convention exclusives. I know both Andrea and I have seen tons of awesome stuff we want from the Funko booth, so we need to hit that, and there's bound to be plenty of other things for us to spend our money on. There's also the Nintendo Lounge next door to the convention centre, and all of the cool stuff that gets set up outside and nearby. I'm really excited to experience all of the fun surrounding Comic-Con.

And there's still our shopping day before SDCC begins! I can't wait to head over to Fashion Valley Mall near our hotel and see what we can find there. It's a really nice outdoor mall that just feels like San Diego to me. It's become tradition to spend a few hours our first day checking out all of the stores in there. The Lego Store, the Nike Store, the Apple Store, JC Penny, Old Navy, and all of the other stores. I don't even remember them all at this point. There's also the Cheesecake Factory which will need to be visited, and our annual tradition of seeing a movie at the AMC Fashion Valley Cinemas. I'm not sure what we'll see this year, but I'm sure it'll be something fun and scifi-related.

So there we have it! A rundown on some of the awesome stuff I can't wait for! I know I don't have a great track record with keeping up with this blog during Comic-Con, but I'm going to try to update it during the trip. And Andrea and I have some fun ideas for this year that we'll hopefully manage to put into action, so stay tuned for that! I'm not sure if I'll post again before the trip, but if anything exciting happens, it'll show up here at some point!

Comic Books!

Two posts in two days? What's going on here?! Well, on my way home from work today, I was sitting on the train (forever) thinking about the comics that came out this week, and realized that I felt like talking about them. By that, I mean the comics that I actually picked up. Tons of comics came out, but I am pretty biased in my Marvel love, so there won't be any DC, Darkhorse, or whatever else here.

Let's go alphabetical. All-New X-Factor #9 came out this week, and while I love Peter David, and loved the previous run of X-Factor, I'm finding it hard to keep interested in this book. I just don't really get it. The draw to the previous book was that it was a detective agency investigating the mysteries of the Marvel universe. It all started with Decimation and grew into this crazy awesome book full of mystery and adventure and fun. This book, I just don't know where it's going. I'm still on board 'cause I want to know where it's going, but I'm starting to worry that it's just not as good as the previous book. It's not bad. I just don't get it.

Up next is Amazing X-Men. There were actually two issues of Amazing X-Men this week. And they were very different. I started with Amazing X-Men Annual #1. This one was bad. Monty Nero is new to Marvel, and it shows. The story was pretty lame. I got about halfway through and realized I just didn't care, so I just flipped through the rest looking at the pretty pictures. Salvador Larroca generally does a good job on the art, but I find his iteration of Storm pretty ugly.

On the other hand, Amazing X-Men #8 was pretty great. Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost generally make me pretty nervous when they show up in my X-Men comics. The last time they took over one of the books I loved, they killed off a bunch of my favourite characters and I was furious for months. But then they went and made me love the book even more. I'm pretty excited for this "World War Wendigo!" story they've started. It takes place in Canada, and it features members of Alpha Flight! That's the start to a great story! But after the first issue I'm worried they're up to their old tricks again.

Next was Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #2. If you're not reading this, do yourself a favour and get on it! This is only the second issue of this new series, but there's a lot to catch up on if you so choose with 200 Ultimate Spider-Man issues in several different series. Bendis is great in general, but this new story has me really excited to see what's going to happen next.

New Warriors #5, also written by Christopher Yost (minus Craig Kyle) is another fairly new book that I'm enjoying. Most of the characters are new to me, but I love team books, and especially teams of young heroes. We've got classic New Warriors team members Justice and Speedball, the new Nova, a brand new Inhuman named Haechi, a technology user named Sun Girl, an Atlantian named Water Snake (who may be related to Namorita?), the spider-clone Scarlet Spider (Kaine, not Ben Reilly), and someone named Hummingbird. I'm not sure where this book is going, but I'm very much drawn in by it.

Now, the last book I picked up this week was a doozie. The end was just... Wow... there's a picture of the tweet that explains it perfectly (please excuse the misspelling of the letter "W", I was trying for effect and I realized too late that I dunno how to properly spell it). Original Sin #3. Marvel's latest big event series. Like I said: crazy pants. If you haven't been keeping up, the gist of it is that someone killed the Watcher (the giant bald dude that watches over all of the big events of the Marvel universe, hangs out on the moon), and the heroes are trying to figure out who did it. In the mean time, a villain, or maybe a group of villains, ended up with one of the Watcher's eyes and has unleashed a bunch of secrets, and that's gonna cause some problems. But seriously. The end. Crazy pants. Go read it.

So yeah, there was some good, some great, and a bit of mediocre. But it was a memorable week for comics!

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!

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!

King of the Nerds

Day 5 of the trip, day 3 of Comic Con. Saturday? What day is it today? Right, Sunday. So yeah, yesterday, Saturday. Can you tell I'm having trouble keeping up with my blogging?

Saturday had a pretty great start. We were able to sleep in a little bit, and made it to the convention centre about 9:30ish? I don't remember precisely. But we made it in time for what we were going for.

At 10am at the Legendary booth, the king of the nerds himself, Chris Hardwick, was signing autographs and meeting the fans. And we made it! He was dressed as the tenth Doctor, and he seemed pretty excited when I handed him my ticket from the previous night's podcast to get signed. I was pretty excited to get my picture taken with him.

Andrea of course was very happy to meet him, she's been a fan forever. And he was great! He even took a picture with Anne! I don't think I mentioned previously, but our friend Anne couldn't make it to Comic Con with us, so Andrea crocheted a doll of her to bring along so she was with us in spirit. So yeah, Chris Hardwick now thinks we are crazy.

After that, we went to the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton beside the convention centre to catch the Geek & Sundry panel. I had no idea what it was, but Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton? I'm there! So we listened to them talk about all the cool stuff happening with their Geek & Sundry YouTube channel. I think I'm going to have to subscribe to that! The cast of the Guild was also there, with a couple other special guests. It was pretty fun!

After that, it was the Nerdist panel! We were totally getting our Nerdist on. Chris Hardwick and a bunch of other people talked about all the exciting stuff coming up. Most exciting to me: Celebrity Bowling with... wait for it... the Doctor Who cast! So awesome. Looks like I'll be watching a lot more YouTube in the future!

Outside between the Hilton and the Convention Centre there was a thing selling burgers and hotdogs, and a cool Batman setup. Burgers and Batmobiles! We grabbed burgers and then went to look at the different ones. There were 5 of them. Two versions of the Bat-tank (or Tumbler as its ACTUALLY called) plus three older batmobiles. It was kinda cool.

Once we got back to the convention centre, we walked right past Felicia Day, just walking along in the front lobby area of the building. I was all, " Is that Felicia Day? Did we just walk RIGHT PAST Felicia Day?!" You probably don't realize this, but I love Felicia Day.

Anyway, next: coffee! And then the Avengers vs. X-Men panel! I love Marvel panels. Again, there wasn't all that much info that I hadn't already heard about, but it definitely got Andrea excited for comics again. Sadly, I was foiled in asking my question in the panel due to the question line being cut off directly in front of me. And the guy was an idiot. He asked a question that EVERYONE already knew the answer to. And I had a much more interesting question. But oh well.

After that, we decided to check out the line for Hall H. There was a panel for Iron Man 3 that looked interesting, and the line didn't seem so bad, so Andrea and Neil got into line, and I took off. We had 2 hours to wait, so I went to explore the floor again.

Went and said hi to Steve and Shane in the Artist Alley again, but they were both pretty busy so I took off to hunt down some elusive swag. No luck though. Sorry Paul. Everything is getting sold out so fast too! I guess it's not that surprising. I wasted a good half hour or longer playing Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance at the Square Enix booth. On my way back across the room I walked by a Doctor cosplayer that I thought was actually Matt Smith for a minute, and then I saw the guy that played Gunn on Angel at a booth. Someone told me to tweet it, but I had no wifi, so I couldn't do it. Oh darn.

After that, it was about 5:30, so I headed back to the Hall H line, and by a stroke of luck, Andrea and Neil spotted me and I jumped back into line with them. However, we didn't make it into Hall H, so about 6:15, we took off back to our hotel and had dinner.

At that point, it should have been the end of the night, but with so much sitting in panels, I didn't reach my fitness goal for the day, so I went and walked laps around the hotel grounds for half an hour. Thanks Nike+ FuelBand. Thanks a lot.

Day 3? Day 1? Who Knows?

So! Trip day 3, but the official 1st day of Comic-Con International 2012! We really didn't have much exciting planned for Thursday, but it ended up being a pretty great day anyway.

We started out venturing into the fray to try to get a BBC lanyard and some toy for Andrea's friend. Both attempts ended in failure. We were really starting to feel like it was completely futile. But we don't give up.

We decided to go check out some of the stuff I wanted to do, so we headed down to Artist Alley to meet someone I'd been talking to. So I got to meet Stephen Sadowski! His artwork was really cool to look at, and it was cool to meet him, and his husband Shane Rooks. They are actually from Vancouver so close to home!

After that, we made one more run by the BBC booth, and we were thinking it looked futile, but then we spotted the exchange of lanyards, and zipped through the crowd and got to be the first people to grab them. Success!

Mattel was another bust. But we went by another booth where I picked up a copy of Amulet signed by one of the guys who works on it. That was pretty fun.

We then got in line for the Marvel House of Ideas panel. There was some author before that, and her panel wasn't all that interesting, so I didn't pay attention. Oops. The Marvel panel didn't have a lot of new information in it, but it was a lot of fun. After that we remembered again how hungry we were, so we too off and found food at some little Mexican restaurant. And then another Marvel panel! The Next Big Thing panel also didn't have a lot of new information, but again, it was pretty fun. I love the Marvel people.

At that point, we decided to enter the fray one last time, so we headed onto the show floor. And surprise! It wasn't anywhere near as busy! We made our way to the Mattel booth, and pretty much walked right up. It was great. Andrea was finally able to get the thing for her friend. Success! Again!

We also managed to get the pirate domo figure comic-con exclusive, but couldn't get the Maleficent figure Andrea wanted. I bought a really awesome Batman, Robin, and Catwoman print from Steve, which I am really excited about.

And at that, our comic-con adventure for the day was done, so we headed on back to the hotel, at which point I took off to hang out with a couple of San Diego friends, Shawn and Scott, a really great couple I met last year when I was here. They took me for dinner at Baja Betty's, a great Mexican restaurant in Hillcrest, part of the gayborhood of San Diego. Had a great time hanging out with them, and decided I never wanna leave SD, haha.

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!)

Thor! And Other Marvel Films

If you've read my blog even once, or ever met me for that matter, you know I am a huge nerd. And most should probably know that I have a lot of nerd-love for Marvel comics. So it should be no surprise that I was looking forward to Thor! Right from the original announcement I've been waiting to see this one. And see it I did. Twice even. Double the Chris Hemsworth. Yum.

I have been really impressed with the quality of movies Marvel has been putting out lately.
Iron Man: Top notch! The first of the new Avengers themed/lead-up movies that really raised the bar!
Incredible Hulk: Great! Huuuuuuuuge improvement over the previous iteration (which I consider unwatchable, so anything would have been an improvement).
Iron Man 2: Almost as good as the first one, and still fantastic! And then...
Thor: Just all kinds of awesome! I have literally no complaints at all! (except that it was in 3D...)

I love these movies 'cause they all tie in together. Each one has little nods to the others and they build off of each other. Thor had it's fair share of that. They mention Tony Stark and refer to Bruce Banner, and the inclusion of Agent Coulson in a more prominent role, along with SHIELD making more of a presence made this movie a lot of fun. Also, Clint Barton (AKA Hawkeye!)!! And that is all just the extras!

I am really not much of a Thor fan, so I was going into this movie knowing very little about the character and his history, not to mention the cast of supporting characters. I really enjoyed my introduction to Thor and the other gods of Asgard, as well as Jane Foster (and the clever way they mentioned Dr. Donald Blake). So much so that I had to go online afterwards and spend hours researching.

It's interesting that these Marvel Studios movies are so fantastic, while all of their co-produced films are just kinda crap in comparison. I am really excited for X-Men: First Class this summer, but I know it won't be the same calibre of film. It's gotta be better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but really, I could make a better movie in my backyard (if I had a backyard) than that Wolverine film. Marvel needs to rope in the rights on all of it's different franchises and take creative control back 'cause all of these different co-productions are killing Marvel movies. I think it would be awesome if we could see little cameos and mentions in all of Marvel's movies. Have Spider-Man swing by in the background of an X-Men film. Have the Avengers consult with Beast. Mister Fantastic video conference with the leaders of the other major Marvel teams. Or just the casual mentions of other Marvel characters in the films. No more of these completely separate universes.

Anyway... The next major Marvel film will be Captain America: The First Avenger this summer (while Andrea and I are at Comic-Con!) and I really can't wait! It looks like another great one (even if it is gonna be in 3D...). What do you think of Marvel movies? Fan? Not-so-much? Lemme know!

If you'd like a proper review of this movie, visit my good pal Andrea's blog. I agree with her on most parts. Except Natalie Portman. I loved her in this movie.