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!

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!

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.

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!)

More Evidence That I'm a Nerd

So, I had planned on typing up this great big E3 review blog (and I had actually typed most of it), but I decided that there was far too much useless stuff that I just didn't care about in it, so this is E3 blog attempt number 2! Every year I get super psyched for the Electronics Entertainment Expo (or E3, for short). It's where all of the big gaming companies get together with the press and show off all the new stuff they're working on. It's all very exciting for a nerd like me. This year I was actually a little bit disappointed with a lack of actual release dates for games, but I was pleased with what they showed off.

Now, the main events of E3 are the "Big Three" press conferences, those three being Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. There are a few other "big" press conferences, but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch them 'cause they seemed pretty darn boring. But even two of the "big three" were pretty boring to me.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with their press conference, showing off all that's new with the Xbox 360. Which really wasn't exciting to me at all. I actually quit watching partway through. What I did get out of it was that they are really trying to push the Kinect (which I don't want) and they have a lot of sequels and remakes of games I don't care about (war games, shooters, and more Halo...). Tomb Raider actually looks alright, but I don't think I'll play it. Fable: The Journey seems like a step backward for the series, I like free play, I don't want a game-on-rails. The new Xbox Experience (dashboard) looks pretty cool though, and TV through the Xbox would be cool (but Telus already does that here).

Sony held their press conference on everything Playstation later that evening and this one I got to watch live 'cause it was after work. Once again, I wasn't overly impressed. There was a lot of similar stuff to the way the Microsoft show went. Sequels of games I don't care about (war games, shooters) and a real push to get with the 3D gaming experience (I don't like 3D). They did release a cool 3D monitor bundle, and talked about the new feature that eliminates split screens using 3D glasses technology, but I'm still not buying it. They also talked about the NGP, now dubbed the Playstation Vita, or PSV as I'm gonna call it. Looks like a pretty nice piece of hardware, but it seems like they are just trying to cram as much into it as possible to make it seem cooler than the 3DS. I may buy it, especially since it's only gonna cost $250, but so far there aren't any games that interest me coming for it.

Nintendo was the star of E3 once again this year (as far as I'm concerned anyway). They opened up the show with a special look at the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. They did some fun little musical stuff, and talked about the Zelda games they've got coming out this year. Link's Awakening being released on the 3DS Virtual Console that day, the N64 classic Ocarina of Time 3D coming to the 3DS on June 19th (which is this coming weekend! I pre-ordered mine, did you?), GBA classic Four Swords coming to the DSiWare shop for free this September, and Skyward Sword for the Wii on it's way this holiday season. There was some more stuff to do with that but it wasn't important enough to remember.

After that, they showed off a string of 3DS games on their way: Mario Kart (which appears to have a few new gameplay elements added to it, air and underwater racing sections), Star Fox (boooooring), Super Mario Bros. 3D (which looks AWESOME! Can't wait to get my hands on that. Tanooki suit!!), Kid Icarus: Uprising (looks cool, but is really old news since it's reveal last year and STILL no release date), and Luigi's Mansion 2 (So cool! I don't even know why! I had no interest at all in the first one but I want this one so bad!). They also talked about a few 3rd party games but they were all dumb so I won't mention them.

Afterwards, they announced the Nintendo Wii U! It looks pretty exciting, but as time goes on, I lose enthusiasm, so I really should have blogged about it sooner. It's basically an HD Wii, for the most part, even using the Wii controllers and such, BUT it's got one big difference. The main controller for the system is basically a tablet computer fused with a motion sensing controller, with buttons. Minus the CPU. It can be used as a second screen for all kinds of different things, plus some games even allow you to switch gameplay from the TV over to the controller so someone else can use the TV for something else. See how it doesn't sound all that exciting? But it IS! I SWEAR! Watch the videos! Maybe I'll make another post entirely devoted to the Wii U later. Good plan, I think.

Anyway, that was pretty much it for the Nintendo conference, the rest was them talking about the Wii U and different developers weighing in and pretty much from there it was just boring crap. Elsewhere at E3 Nintendo also announced a few other games. A new DS Kirby game that looks a little lame. A new Wii Kirby game that looks AWESOME. And... uh... I don't remember what else. There was nothing new about Paper Mario, which made me sad. There was a new trailer for it, but that was it. Square Enix was pretty weak on their presence at E3 with an absence of ALL of the games I'd been looking forward to see from them. They DID however have some good stuff on FFXIII-2 which looks like it will be good. Now just to finish the first one... Natsume brought their new Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games which look very nice (I like the farming games...). There was also some new stuff on X-Men: Destiny which I want very very badly, and a new Spider-Man game which looks like it will be good, but I doubt I'll play it.

And I think that is pretty much it. I really had to rush through all that 'cause there was a lot of stuff announced. I'll probably do future blog posts dedicated specifically to certain game/system announcements once I absorb more info, and you can expect a review of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D sometime in the near(?) future 'cause I went down and pre-ordered it today. I'll probably be there right when they open to pick it up on Sunday too. To be fair, they open at noon, and I'll just be leaving my weekly family coffee thing right about then, so it's not like I'm a rabid fan or anything. Anyway, until next time...