Paul Rudd as Ant-Man

I've been waiting to see who gets to be Ant-Man, but I'll be honest - this isn't the news I was hoping for. Paul Rudd has been cast as Ant-Man, and I won't pass my final judgment on whether or not I'm ok with that, but my first impression is negative. It's nothing against Rudd; its because Marvel has cast an actor known for comedies as Hank Pym. At least it's Hank Pym and not Scott Lang, who was rumored to be the protagonist. Scott is cool, but I've never considered him to be the main Ant-Man. THE Ant-Man is Hank Pym, a very dark and fairly disturbed character, and they've cast a comedic actor to play him. Now do you see my problem with this? From what I've heard, this movie will be one of the more comedic Marvel movies, which is just straight-up wrong. Spider-Man is funny. Deadpool is funny. In a really twisted and dark way, even the Punisher can be kinda funny. But Ant-Man? Ant-Man is not funny. Funny is like this:

Not funny is like this:

And Hank Pym isn't like

He's like

 





If they want a funny Marvel movie, why don't they Just MAKE A DEADPOOL MOVIE ALREADY! There's even a script ready to go as soon as they get the green light! (More on that later.) Anyway, people make the argument that you can't take a guy seriously when he shrinks down to tiny size and talks to ants. I see their point, but mustn't reduce his identity to his power. Hank used  his own brain patterns when creating Ultron, an extremely powerful indestructible robot who wants to exterminate the human race, so Hank is responsible for thousands if not millions of deaths. Is that enough, or do you want more? How about the guilt from his creation of Ultron leading him to insanity, clinical depression, and his relationship with the Wasp becoming gradually more abusive until he beat her and they split up. It's some heavy stuff, man. Anyone who thinks Ant-Man can't be a serious character clearly needs to go read some comicbooks. I'm not saying I think the movie will be bad though; I'm looking forward to it. I'm just disappointed that it's probably going to be a comedy. Just like how I think Iron Man 3 made the third and fourth worst plot decisions for a comicbook movie ever (the second worst being Deadpool's treatment in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the absolute worst being revealing Judge Dredd's face in the Stallone movie), but my net opinion of the movie remains positive. My only other issue with this is their timing. I'm pretty sure Ant-Man won't come out until after Age of Ultron, which means they'll change Ultron's backstory, which wipes away a huge piece of Hank Pym's identity. If nothing else though, a movie will make people see that Ant-Man can be cool, which is something I think needs to happen. I'm skeptically optimistic if that makes any sense. Let's just hope Disney doesn't mess this up.

Amazing Spider-Man 2

So a couple days ago, we got the first trailer for the sequel to Amazing Spider-Man, and like many other people, I have mixed feelings about it. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is:

Alright, now that everyone is caught up, let's get into it. So in this trailer, we see Electro, the Rhino, and the Green Goblin. Personally, I'm usually against introducing a major villain in a movie along with at least two other villains, but I think in this case they have a somewhat reasonable excuse. While the Green Goblin has enough of a story to be in his own movie, I would assume the thought is that they don't want to make a movie too similar to the first Spider-Man movie. Because of this, I hope he doesn't suit up until at least halfway through the movie,  spending the first part of the movie as an evil mastermind, but not a costumed villain. As for the costume itself, it looked pretty high tech, so judging from that and the fact that Norman looked pretty sick in the one shot where we see his face, I'm gonna assume that his suit contains some sort of life support not unlike Darth Vader. His glider could be part of that too as some sort of mobility device, but maybe not. We also see Harry Osborn in this trailer, but his hairstyle black clothes remind me a little of the infamous Spider-Man 3 dance scene, so I'm slightly biased against him. I'll give him a chance though. Let's talk about the rest of the villains though.
Electro was the first villain announced and the one we see most of in this trailer, so I assume he'll be one of the more important villains. They've gone with a more Ultimate Comics look, which is a good thing, since as much as I love this:

 

...it really wouldn't translate very well to the big screen. It seemed a little cheesy at first when he talked about showing everyone what it's like to live without power, but he saved it by adding mercy to the list of things people would be living without. We also saw a little bit of the Rhino, who looks very different from his original look, but maybe a little less different than you think. For a time in the comicbooks, he was upgraded to Mecha-Rhino and looked kind of like he does in this trailer. On his armor we can see a red star painted on, making him look kind of Soviet, especially since in the comicbooks he was born in Russia. Could this mean that we'll get a villain who's not connected to Oscorp, or is that too much to hope for? I guess we'll see. I don't want to get my hopes up, since Oscorp seems to be quite the villain factory. Speaking of which, you may have noticed earlier that I said there would be the Green Goblin and at least two other villains. In one scene of the trailer, there is a mysterious man with a hat walking through a corridor. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that's Norman Osborn due to the fact that when the Green Goblin was first introduced in the comicbooks, his identity was always concealed by a coat and hat when he wasn't in costume. Secondly, there's something very interesting in the background. Two things to be specific. Behind some glass, we see what look like Doctor Octopus' tentacles and harness, and to the left of those we see a similar looking harness but with wings attached to it instead of tentacles. Whether this is just fan service, setup for the next movie, or a hint that they'll be in this one, we can be fairly sure that Doctor Octopus and the Vulture are both products of Oscorp in this universe. I realize that Oscorp is much bigger and more important in the Ultimate universe than the mainstream Marvel universe, but I still don't like that they're involved with basically everything (except possibly the Rhino I hesitantly hope), including Richard and Mary Parker. I suppose connecting everything is the only way to put at least three villains and the Richard and Mary Parker plotline in the same movie without having way too much going on, but still. I hope they use the Green Goblin to end the Oscorp story and then find another convenient plot device to connect all their plot elements. I also wish that they would wait to deal with the Rhino and Peter's parents until another movie. Since that's not going to happen though, the best I dare to hope for is for this movie to only use the three villains we've seen, then set up the Vulture and Doctor Octopus for the next one. If the third Amazing Spider-Man brings back these three and introduces two more villains, they'll only need one more to make a somewhat reimagined Sinister Six. Since they love making Oscorp responsible for everything, it would be fairly easy to bring in either Kraven the Hunter or Mysterio. Kraven could be an Oscorp mercenary outfitted with advanced technology and tasked with hunting down Spider-Man and happen to be a passionate hunter, and Mysterio could be an inventor who works for Oscorp, then takes his inventions and goes rogue. These aren't the best movie backstories I can think of, but they're the best ones that involve Oscorp, and they seem to have a monopoly on everything in these movies. That is, unless our boy the Rhino comes through for us. Now that I think about it though, I'd really like to see Kraven as an assassin who thinks of his contracts as hunting trips. I can't think of a better story for Mysterio, but that's what the movie writers get paid for, so they could probably think of something good.............. Ok who are we kidding? They'd just use Oscorp. Well actually now that I think about it, the Untimate Universe's version of the Sinister Six was actually five villains since they tried to recruit Spider-Man as the sixth member, so that's quite possible for the movie. Anyway, as you can tell I'm a little skeptical of this movie, but I remain hopeful. I just talk more about what I'm doubtful of since it would be boring to read a post that just lists things that look cool. So to sum it up, I think Amazing Spider-Man 2 can be really good if they do it right, but if not it's going to have too many plotlines with underdeveloped villains. Either way, we'll probably get a cool video game out of this movie, which is one of those sentences I never expect myself to say. I only have hope since the first Amazing Spider-Man game was pretty good. So I guess that's that.

Christopher Eccleston in the Marvel Universe

Thor 2 looks really good and I'm looking forward to it. Especially since the new villain is played by Christopher Eccleston, who you may know as the ninth doctor from Doctor Who, who I think is the most underrated of the eleven we've seen (seriously, he deserves way more credit than he gets). He's a good actor and I'm looking forward to seeing him fight Thor, but Malekith is the wrong Marvel character for him. It's not that I don't want to see him as Malekith, but if he does, he can't play any other Marvel character, and there's one that would be just perfect for him to play. If you're a fan of the ninth doctor, you probably already know who I want him to play, but if you're not, I suppose I should tell you now. He should play Mr. Fantastic. If you don't understand why, watch this video of him as the doctor and you'll get it.

 

 

So as now all of you know, Christopher Eccleston should be Mr. Fantastic. You could already call him that and it would make sense. I know he didn't want to be type cast as the doctor, but this would be fan-tastic (punpunpunpunpun)for all the Doctor Who and Marvel fans. Coincidentally, David Tennant aka the tenth doctor has said he'd like to play Mr. Fantastic, which I'd like too, but not as much as Christopher Eccleston, since that would just be too perfect. Also, it would make this a reality:

 



Comicbooks You Need to Read

Ok, so if you're really into comicbooks, you've probably read most of these already, but just for the purpose of sharing, I'll list a few comicbooks I think people should read and why I think so for each one. It would take too long for me to list all the comicbooks I like, so I'll just name the important ones in the order that I think of them. Ready? Let's begin.
Secret Wars:
This is a classic Marvel story where a wide range of heroes and villains are brought to an alien planet to battle. Besides being a classic and the first appearance of the Beyonder, it tells the origin of Spider-Man's black suit, and indirectly causes Venom and Carnage to be created. I think that's important. Another little detail is that this was the first Marvel series on which action figures were based, and I like action figures, so yeah.
Watchmen:
You have no excuse not to read Watchmen. It's a self contained story, meaning that when you pick up the book, you don't need any background knowledge of the Watchmen universe. It's pretty famous and got fantastic reviews, and rightly so. This more realistic take on superheroes (with the exception of one blue guy who controls atom:s) is brilliantly written and really makes you think.
Hellboy:
If your only experience with Hellboy is the movies, you might not expect the comicbooks to be very deep or philosophical. However, if you pick one up, you'll find that that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm all for occult steampunk Nazis summoning demons, and these stories are written so intelligently that sometimes I even think to myself "Look at me readin' smart stuff!"
the Walking Dead:
This has to be one of the most disturbing comicbooks I've ever read, and if that doesn't hook you, I don't know what will. It really does mess with your emotions, but in a good way. The black and white art style adds interest, along with the emphasis on the character development of the human characters instead of the mindless action you find in some other zombie stories.
Judge Dredd:
You're missing out if you've never read Judge Dredd. Even in its earliest days, this is a dark series with lots of murder and death, but good storytelling with a great protagonist and a dark sense of humor. People who liked the movie will like the comicbooks, and while we're on the topic of the movie, you should sign the petition to make another over here: http://2000adonline.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a6e40236aa24d482cfff600d2&id=62906ebdcc. Also, I think the idea of the world getting blown up by war and civilization only existing in large dystopian cities surrounded by radiation desert is completely possible, so we might as well read up and get ready.
Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt:
Many argue that this is the best Spider-Man story ever told, and I think I agree. Just like Hellboy, it's written all smart and quotes poetry and stuff, so it has that going for it. It also made me respect Kraven the Hunter more than I thought I ever would, which sounds cheesy but it's true. Anyway, really good story, pick it up, etc.
Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle:
At first glance, this may look a bit like anti-alcohol propaganda, but I pinky promise it's better than that, and you can't break a pinky promise, so believe me on this. It depicts Iron Man at his absolute worst, having lost nearly everything, and makes him a much more interesting character since we see that the one thing armor can't protect him from is himself. Besides his internal struggle, the story also has a nice lineup of villains, a retelling of his origin, and is the first appearance of Justin Hammer.
Batman: Knightfall:
For me, this is the classic Batman story. It has tons of villains, and is the first appearance of Bane, who's one of my absolute favorites. You may know Bane as the man who broke the bat, and this is when he does it. It also tells the story of Batman's comeback and how the cowl was almost usurped and corrupted by Azrael. This is the same kind of deal as Demon in a Bottle where the hero becomes a deeper character by falling and then rising.

And that's it. Those are the ones I think everyone who likes comicbooks should read. Regardless of what publisher or what style you usually read, all of these are worth your while.

A Justice League Movie

Considering how successful the Avengers movie was, it's perfectly understandable that DC wants to make a Justice League movie. However, I don't think that's a good idea. The reason Avengers worked was all because of the way they set it up with the other movies. Marvel chose Iron Man to be the movie when the Avengers Initiative was announced, and then some characters like Nick Fury or Agent Coulson were in most of the other movies to tie them all together. So far, all of DC's movies seem to take place in separate universes, so to suddenly say that they don't would just be weird, not to mention raising all kinds of questions like why Superman or Green Lantern didn't help save Gotham from Bane when Batman was gone. Also, the Dark Knight movies are over, and Batman basically retired. You can't have a Justice League without Batman, so they would have to get a new Batman, which would diminish the goodness of the Dark Knight trilogy. If they want to make a Justice League movie, they made their other movies in the wrong order. They should've started with the Flash, since he's probably the most relatable member of the team. Superman is an alien, Wonder Woman is the queen of the Amazons, Green Lantern was recruited by aliens to patrol space, and Batman's dark and brooding nature makes him hard to relate to. That leaves the Flash. He should've been like Iron Man where his story is pretty easy to understand and just serves to begin the process of superhero movies coming out. Maybe at some point it could briefly show someone visiting Metropolis. From that you can probably tell that I think after Flash should've been Superman. That's based mostly on Earth, but it has aliens in it, so they could use it to introduce the planet Oa and/or the Guardians of the Universe. That way you already know a little bit before the Green Lantern movie comes out and they don't have to throw it at you all at once. For people who don't read comicbooks, that was probably a lot of information to digest. The Superman should also just casually mention the fact that Bruce Wayne owns the Daily Planet, thus establishing that Superman and Batman both exist in this universe, but maybe Bruce doesn't don the costume until after the events of Man of Steel. So so far, we start with the Flash, which leads into Superman, which introduces Batman and Green Lantern, but Wonder Woman is still missing. I'm not really sure how to bring her in if I'm going to be honest, which apparently I am since I just said that, but hey, do I have to do everything around here? I suppose DC could have some characters that do what SHIELD does to tie characters together, but that's risky business since the last thing they want to do is look like they're copying Marvel. I've been doing my best to plan it out so they don't need to lean on that crutch, and if someone figures out how to insert Wonder Woman into this mixture, I think it could work, and I'm not just saying that because I wrote it. I am partially saying that because I wrote it, but not completely. But whatever, it's too late for that now unless they want to reboot their whole universe. They could probably keep Man of Steel in the new continuity, but Green Lantern and the Dark Knight movies? Forget about it. Many of you would probably be glad to forget about the Green Lantern movie, but I think it's too soon for a reboot. I can see them getting some negative press if they did that. I really liked the Dark Knight trilogy though, and those only work if they're in their own universe, and it's definitely too soon to reboot Batman. So really, what I'm saying, if I'm saying anything at all, is that I want a Flash movie. That and that DC should really talk to me before making their movie decisions.

Comicbook Mercenaries and Assassins

In both Marvel and DC, the mercenaries and assassins have always been some of my favorite characters. For example, Marvel has Bullseye, and Taskmaster, DC has Deadshot and Onomatopoeia, and Deadpool and Deathstroke are each one of my favorite characters in their respective universes. I love Deadpool's randomness and Deathstroke's sheer toughness and ability to beat anyone if he has time to prepare. I was pretty happy when Deadpool's game was announced, then Deathstroke was announced for Injustice, and now that they've announced Arkham Origins and showed that he'll be in it, I'm a happy man. Especially since they've said that the story of the game is that eight of the world's best assassins have gathered in Gotham to kill the Batman. Now that sounds exactly like the kind of game I want to play. I know that the Penguin and Black Mask are in the game, but they're not part of the assassin squad. Where they're concerned, the only member we know of is Deathstroke, but Deadshot has already been in an Arkham game, so I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up too. I just wish there were more comicbook stories about villains-for-hire. I've read Suicide Squad and The Thunderbolts, but I don't count those. Those are villains being forced by the government to do hero stuff. I want there to be an ongoing series about villains doing some antihero stuff and some villain stuff that ends up working out for the greater good. No government involvement though. They have to choose to do what they're doing or else it's not as good. There are tons of stories with costumed mercenaries in them, but I want them to be the protagonists so they can do what they do, but actually win. Maybe the story could involve some assassins being hired then betrayed by another villain, then seeking revenge. Ir maybe one of thise miniseries type things that take place during a massive crossover event and details what's going on with other characters. Either way, their actions serve the greater good but they're still not trying to be herpes. I am happy though that my two favorite mercs will both be playable in upcoming video games. Deadpool gets his own game, but Deathstroke is playable in Injustice and is a major antagonist in Arkham Origins, so they're both doing pretty well. And that's all for today. Later!

First Person Daredevil Game

Big news, everyone! They've just announced an upcoming first person action game staring Daredevil, the Man Without Fear! Check out these leaked screenshots at the bottom! Just kidding. But a Daredevil game would be pretty nice. Obviously it would have to be mostly third person since seeing through Matt Murdoch's eyes wouldn't be very useful. But I think a sort of first person focus mode would be cool. The screen would have to be all black except for the outlines of things and people detected by his hearing, his radar sense, and any other sense that can be justified. It could be used to either detect objects and places of interest, or hidden enemies. Or it could be used to temporarily slow down time during combat. If the latter, there would have to be a time limit to it. Maybe when a combo meter is filled, focus mode could activate. Or it could just be used as an alternate mode of perceiving the environment and be switched on an off at will. Making this a stealth based game would be a bad idea, but it could borrow a bit from Splinter Cell and have the light sources in the environment be destructible so then Daredevil has the advantage since nothing is different for him when it's dark. When it's completely dark, his senses mode would be activated automatically, but combat would still work normally. And combat skills are what should be used to defeat bosses. NO QUICK TIME EVENTS. I hate boss battles that consist only of dodging attacks until the boss is stunned, then completing an otherwise meaningless sequence of buttons. And no henchmen or environment boss battles where the villain just happens to have some piece of technology or pet monster or army of thugs. As for who the bosses should be, I think it should definitely have Kingpin and Bullseye, and I think Jester would make a cool addition. There's a comicbook issue where Daredevil goes through his maze of doom, then fights him mano a mano, so that could be a cool video game. And that's pretty much all the ideas I have for a Daredevil game. Until my next post, farewell!

A Hawkeye FPS

There have been some good Marvel games, and also a fair amount of bad ones. There are a few though that will probably never be made, but I feel like they would be cool. Like a first person shooter staring Hawkeye. It could benefit from the popularity of the Avengers movie, and be the only fps to my knowledge where your only weapon is a bow, which would make it new and interesting instead of a generic COD clone with a new label on it. I haven't played the newest Crysis yet, but from what I've seen and heard, the bow mechanic works pretty well in that, so a Hawkeye game could have similar bow gameplay. It would have to be a little less overpowered, but I think Clint's different arrow types could fit well into an upgrade system, along with perk trees involving accuracy, attack damage, and things like that. There should be a lot of arrow types, but not too many ammo pickups besides basic broadhead or maybe blunt tip arrows. I don't know about you, but I would totally play this game if it was made (unless it was made by EA, since I can easily see them charging money for additional arrow types... Ok that was a joke, but I still don't feel like EA would be a good fit). As far as traversal goes, one f Barton's most common arrows is the grappling hook arrow, so that could become an important gameplay element. Maybe the player could start the game with unlimited grapple and nonlethal blunt tip arrows and acquire more as the story progresses. I feel like grappling around the map just wouldn't be that fun if you always had to worry about running out of grapples. Rocksteady did a fantastic job with Batman's grappling hook, so something like that would be cool where there are grappleable points marked on the HUD and firing the grapple has its own button so you never have to equip it. Also the camera should move to third person while zipping up to a grapple point. Maybe a little bit of stealth gameplay could be thrown into the action, but definitely not too much. Maybe sneaking to get in position to attack or something like that, but when it comes to taking enemies out, I think this game should be an action packed shooter more than anything else. And that's all I have to say about this genius idea for something I want.

Coulson Lives

In The Avengers, everyone was sad when Agent Coulson died, and with good reason. He was a great character. But some people say that things aren't as they seem. I don't know about you, but I've been keeping up with Stan Lee on Facebook and Youtube, and there's something I've noticed in some of his videos. On his Youtube channel, there are many different types of videos, including a series of cartoons titled Bad Days, which is about comicbook characters having bad days (I probably didn't need to explain that). But anyway, in a fair amount of these little cartoons, the words "Coulson Lives" appear in the background for maybe one or two seconds. It might be in graffiti, on a passing vehicle, or anything like that. If it was just once, I'd say maybe Marvel is just trolling us (and doing a good job of it). But it's been in way more than one video, so I was thinking something might be up. If I remember correctly, Coulson was wounded from a fight with Loki, then pronounced dead by another character. He looked pretty dead to me, but it wasn't one of those deaths that can't be faked or secretly survived, like falling into lava or something like that. So I suppose he could have survived and they faked his death to motivate the Avengers. To be honest though, that would surprise me. I think it would be more reasonable if they found another explanation (NOT time travel!). However, I did hear that not only is Joss Whedon working with Marvel on a TV show about SHIELD, which is already awesome, but that Phil Coulson is going to be in it! And apparently it will take place after the events of Avengers. If that's true, I feel like the Coulson Lives messages were a subtle way of telling just the fans that we haven't seen the last of him.

Comicbook Christmas Specials

I'm a fan of Christmas issues in comicbooks. A lot of titles have them, like Batman, Spider-Man, or even Judge Dredd. One that I like is actually one of Batman's Halloween specials, but it's a retelling of Dickens' A Christmas Carrol, so I'm counting it. It has Bruce Wayne as Scrooge, since he's focusing too much on the Batman and not doing enough as Bruce Wayne, Poison Ivy as Christmas Past, the Joker as Christmas Present, and a brief pointless appearance by the Penguin. But Batman isn't the only one making Dickens references, Dredd does it too. In one of his Christmas issues, there's a starving family with a disabled kid, and a really mean guy who won't help them. He eventually changes his mind and tries to help. He goes out, shoots a bird, but it looks completely pathetic by the time he reaches their home, plus he apparently broke some law at some point, so Judge Dredd shows up and shoots him. But it's a happy ending since they cook his body and eat him. Ok, so maybe it's not that happy, but you gotta love the dark sense of humor in Judge Dredd's stories. One with an actual happy ending is an issue of Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man and the Human Torch. They're chasing down the Sandman, coincidentally one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, and also stopping small crimes on the way. When they finally catch him, he explains that he's visiting his mother, which he makes sure to do every Christmas. Spider-Man even gives him a gift that he had intended for his girlfriend, but didn't want Sandman to show up empty handed. He visits his mother and escapes down a drain, but all is well in the Marvel universe, and it ends with Human Torch putting a giant flaming "Happy Holidays!" or something like that in the sky. That one has the most Christmas spirit, but I do like stories that are dark and just a little messed up, so it's hard to say which one is my favorite. But anyway, happy holidays, everyone!

Being the Hulk

I understand that Bruce Banner lives a very tortured life, but I think sometimes, it would be pretty fun to hulk out. Of course, there would be risks like destroying my own house or the local comic book or video game store, but in the middle of nowhere, it would be fun to turn into a giant indestructible green guy that has huge muscles and can destroy anything. It would just be awesome to do stuff jump to the top of a building, smash some stuff, jump to another building, punch a helicopter out of the air, then just leap down to the ground. But that would require unnecessary endangerment of innocent lives, which I'm not sure I'm willing to do. So maybe just reducing a mountain to rubble would be more appropriate. That would probably be just as fun and relieve an equal amount of stress, which is arguably what turning into the Hulk is all about. As a child, Bruce Banner never really expressed his anger and had a lot of rage built up inside of him until he was caught in the blast of a gamma bomb and developed the ability to hulk out as a way to release his anger. Plus, as extra personalities go, the Hulk is a pretty good one to have around since almost any time Bruce would normally die, he just turns into the Hulk instead, and if his life is being actively threatened by someone, proceeds to beat that person to a pulp. It would be cool to be the smart Hulk, but everyone knows that the Hulk being smart is temporary at best (excluding the Future Imperfect saga where the radiation from nuclear war makes his body a stronger and bearded version of the Hulk, with a mind somewhere between Banner and the Hulk, but insane and evil). He was created for the purpose of being an unstoppable rage monster, and that's what he always must be. I think if I was offered the chance to switch places with Bruce, I would say I'm good and walk away, but a small piece of me would regret it.

Comicbook Easter Eggs

Something that just makes me smile when I read comicbooks is when I find a little easter egg. If you don't know what I mean by that, the term easter egg refers to a little hidden secret that serves no purpose except to entertain the people who find it and understand it. These are often references to another franchise that's completely unrelated to what you find the easter egg in. I'll give some examples. In Marvel's Annihilation, there's a scene with a fleet of ships full of refugees, and one of them is a Battlestar. They don't say anything about it and you only see it in the background of one panel, but it looks identical to the Galactica. In Annihilation Conquest, the series that takes place right after, there's a part where Nova Corps centurions are fighting Phalanx drones, and one of the centurions is a blue version of Pikachu. Some of you may hate me for this, but I'm not a fan of Pokemon. But I still found the easter egg amusing at the very least. Another thing like this is in a Judge Dredd story, the Three Amigos. Dredd and his two "amigos" are fighting an army with a very unopressive dress code, and some of them are wearing Star Trek TNG uniforms. Not only that, but they're recognizeable as Ryker, Georti, Troi, Worf, and maybe Picard. I don't quite remember. The artist put all that effort into drawing Star Trek characters into one panel, and I appreciate that. Probably the most obscure one I've seen is one that I'm not 100% sure was intended, but I'm 90% sure. In Green Lantern: the Sinestro Corps War, an anonymous member of the Sinestro Corps looks exactly like a Baltan, which is an alien race from the Japanese TV show Ultraman. Good show by the way. The Sinestro's skin was blue instead of brown, but his proportions and his distinctive head and hands were the same. Also, in DC's series 52, they made at least one reference to the show Moonlighting. I've never seen this show, so I didn't get any of their references, but in the trade paperbacks, there's a section of text after each issue where either one of the writers or the artists discusses his thoughts on that issue and the series, so the reference was pointed out but not explained. But anyway, I love finding easter eggs in comic books.

Marvel Movie News

Ok, so after a few minutes of research and thinking, I have a lot of news and speculations on upcoming Marvel movies. First of all, Thor 2 will be subtitled The Dark World and Captain America 2 will be subtitled Winter Soldier (which I totally called the first time I saw it). Also, it was rumored that Thor 2 may feature Dr. Stephen Strange, and considering the title, the villain may be Dormammu, which I'm pretty sure I spelled right. But I also heard that Hopkins won't return as Odin, and while it seems a little early to me, Odin might die, and the subtitle might refer to a death related realm. Personally though, I would much rather prefer to see Dormammu, the Lord of the Dark Dimension, on the screen. The same goes for the Radioactive Man, who is rumored to appear in Iron Man 3, along with Mandarin as the confirmed villain. It was also said that they will use elements from the Extremis storyline, such as Tony being able to armor up at will, thanks to microtechnology. But now, Mandarin apparently has an army of enhanced soldiers. At comic con this year, they showed an Iron Man suit that looked a little like the Iron Patriot armor, but the biggest surprise is that it was called the Mark 47. That's right. 47. They also said that to counter Mandarin's Extremis army, Iron Man commands an army of remote controlled armors. If you're as big of an Iron Man fan as I am, and you just heard all of this for the first time, you should be freaking out right now. I'll give you a moment to take in all that awesome. ..............(continue reading when ready) ........... Ok, ready? They apparently plan on bringing in some new Avengers in either Avengers 2, or maybe sometime sooner. On their list are Black Panther, possibly Falcon, and also the Vision, who I was surprised to hear may be played by Vin Diesel, if his posting of a picture of the Vision on Facebook, with some caption that I can't remember wasn't misinterpreted, or just a lie. As for the other two, I'm not sure who's playing them, but hopefully someone cool, since more than one awesome black Avenger would be pretty cool. That actually might be why they chose those two characters, in order to make the superhuman population a little less white. Some people think that neither of those two aren't the best choices, but I think they're both pretty cool, since if they bring Falcon in, he'll probably also be in Captain America 2. Moving on, the Guardians of the Galaxy lineup was confirmed to be the newer version, consisting of Starlord, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Gamora, if my memory is right, which is most of the time. I don't know about you, but besides Gamora, who I'm neutral on, these are some of my favorite Marvel characters. Especially the newer versions of them like smart, knife-wielding Drax, and Starlord-with-cool-helmet-and-many-guns. I've talked in other posts about how much I like his helmet. Someone else with a cool helmet is Ant-Man, whose movie I heard is confirmed to have Wasp in it. In my opinion, the Wasp has always been kind of a fail character, but she needs to be in Ant-Man, and at least one Avengers movie. That's all for now.

Guardians of the Galaxy Movie

In my last post, I said that an Ant-Man movie isn't a total shock to me. Guardians of the Galaxy is. I would never have expected them to get a movie. I didn't think the original Guardians of the Galaxy were that cool, but I did like the newer incarnation that they'll be making a movie of. I'm pretty shocked that they want to expand their movies into the cosmic side of Marvel, but even more surprised that to do it, they're using a title that wasn't very popular and was cancelled relatively soon after it began. I would've expected them to start with a movie introducing one or two cosmic heroes and work their way up to a whole team. It would be hard to do Nova or Quasar without looking like a Green Lantern knockoff, so I'm not sure who they could start with. Not that I'm complaining. I liked Annihilation Conquest and thought the Guardians were a cool team for the most part. I just never would've expected to see Groot or Rocket Raccoon in a movie, so if they're in it, that'll be pretty cool. The only problem I can see is that Marvel has been trying to do the whole "fun for the whole family" thing (it's all Disney's fault; they must be stopped, no matter the cost. Assemble at their headquarters next Guy Fawkes Day), which I'm worried might force them to diminish the quality of some characters like the talking raccoon. They might modify him to appeal more to younger audiences, which I think is a bad idea. He's always been kind of a comic relief character, but I think they should modify him the other way and make him a little more mature. The biggest surprise of all though is that I heard they're making Guardians to set up a Thanos Imperative to introduce Thanos, so when he comes on the screen in Avengers 2, even the non comic book readers will all say "Oh ****! It's Thanos!". That makes sense to me, but as much as I liked it, the Thanos Imperative just seems waaaaay too out there to make into a movie. It has the Shi'ar, the Inhumans, Adam Magus, Nova, a whole new universe that requires extensive knowledge of the mainstream universe to understand, and a whole bunch of other stuff that makes it seem to me like one of those titles that will never be a movie, but apparently, I was wrong. The only thing about that that bothers me is that they'll have to kill off Starlord in only the second movie he's been in, just like how in the comic books they killed him off just a short time after he started being cool. And Nova a slightly longer but still short time after his coolness got a major boost. Right now, it's too early to tell what my feelings on Marvel movies going cosmic are. I've never thought any interstellar story arcs could translate well to the big screen, but I could be wrong. If they do this right, it'll be pure awesomeness.

Marvel Now

Warning: I don't consider myself an angry nerd, but this will be an angry post. Now that I've warned you, let's get into it:

I recently heard that Marvel is going to do their own version of the New 52. I don't have all the facts yet, so I don't know whether to be angry or glad. If they still plan on continuing the already existing Marvel universe, and simply making another one to start fresh, I'm glad. That means they'll get more new readers without driving any away, which means they'll make more money and be able to make more cool stuff. If they plan on replacing the current Marvel universe that's been going since the 40's, then I should be the director of SHIELD, because I am Fury (that wasn't my best pun, but I'm still proud of it). The Marvel universe is quite possibly the longest continuous story in the history of mankind, and if they plan on just ending it and starting a new one, well, that's just not ok with me. To me, that sounds like Marvel saying "Oh yeah, all those comic books you bought in your years of devotion? Those are the past now. If you want to stay a respectable Marvel fan, you have to support our decision to abandon that continuity you love so much"..... I may be overreacting. Especially since I'm not 100% sure that's what's happening. Then again, I may not be. About 97% of the titles I read are from the Big 2. When DC announced their plans for the New 52, I thought: "Well, at least I'll still have Marvel for the beloved complexity that only a true fan can understand". Right? Wrong. If Marvel ends and restarts their mainstream universe, then WHAT DO I HAVE NOW?!! TELL ME THAT, MARVEL!!!! Sorry, that happens to me sometimes. And is it just me, or does this idea remind you of numerous evil plots to destroy human civilization and start again in order to mold it to the plotter's liking? For example, Centrius, the High Evolutionary, the dude from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the dude from Mission Impossible 4, kind of the Doomsday Killer from Dexter, etc. Plus, unless they get Stan The Man to write A LOT of their new material, they'll be nullifying his works, and they can't exactly get King Kirby to do any art for their new titles,  since he's kinda dead. Which is really too bad, since Stan Lee is probably the coolest person in the comic book industry, and with some more modern art techniques, I'd love to see what Jack Kirby would do. Without The King and The Man, how can they begin a proper Marvel universe? I'm sure they have a lot of smart people over there, so why can't they come up with some other way to boost their popularity? There's always another way! WHY DID IT HAVE TO COME TO THIS?!!! Now that I've released all that... whatever that was, I'll end by saying that Marvel has done tons of things I liked and a couple I didn't (Brand New Day, anyone?), but discontinuing their decades-long continuity would be, in my eyes, their worst decision yet.

Thor

Thor has to be one of the coolest guys in the Marvel multiverse. I even think my least favorite version of him, which is Ultimate by the way, is awesome. And I know a lot of people like Ultimate the best, but he has no helmet, his Mjolnir is completely wrong, his tunic doesn't look as cool, and he's part of the Ultimate universe, which I don't like nearly as much as the mainstream universe. But even he's cool. Thor is a god who kills stuff with thunder storms and a hammer! What about that isn't awesome?! I liked the movie, but it could have been awesomer. I mean, it was a good movie, but he pretty much only has two fight scenes, one near the beginning and the other near the end, and spends the rest of the movie as a mortal. But there were a couple subtle things that they put in there for true hardcore comic book guys like myself. There's a scene that starts with the camera in the air looking down on the city. In the city, there's a billboard with an ad for some kind of travel thing or something, but at the bottom, it says Journey Into Mystery. That's the title of the comic book series that Thor first appeared in. It wasn't until later that Journey Into Mystery, featuring the Mighty Thor was replaced by The Mighty Thor. And the other thing is when they're walking through the Asgard trophy room where that blue ice cube weapon was, and if you look closely, you can see that one of the items in there is the Eye of Harokin. It's a magical artifact that was used in a few Tales of Asgard stories. If you haven't read the old Thors, you should know that after the main story in each issue, there's a shorter story titled Tales of Asgard, and that sometimes they were independent of one another, but sometimes a few of them connected to tell a larger story. The one with the Eye of Harokin was one of those. Anyway though, I have yet to carefully rewatch that scene and look for more familiar items.    -abrupt subject change-     Loki is a great villain. He has character, depth and in the earlier stories before his promotion from god of mischief to evil, his crazy schemes were kind of funny. I'm a little bit sad to say that if I were in his position, I would probably do similar things. For example, turning cars into ice cream and stuff like that. Not to mention that he has one of the best villain lines ever. Seriously. Ever. You ready for this? Are you? Make sure you're ready. I'm not sure if you are. But that's largely because I can't perceive you in any way while you read this. But ok, are you ready? Stop reading if you're not ready for this terrifying, petrifying, mortifying, stupefying line. I admit I was stalling a little bit, but that was to give you time to psyche yourself up for this line. Some people probably got tired of my time wasting and either went to go do something else, or just skipped ahead, but if you made it this far, I applaud you. Really. Well done. But even you're probably wanting me to just tell you the line already, so here it comes. Without further delay (this time I'm not lying), the line is .............. "Begone, pidgeons!" Yep. And he was actually saying that to pigeons. So, after all that buildup, are you satisfied or really disappointed? Now that I think about it though, a good bit of the disappointed group probably left this page as soon as they read the line. So thanks for either appreciating it, or fighting through your disappointment to figuratively hear the rest of what I have to say. And I say figuratively because you can't actually hear my words unless you copy and paste this whole post into one of those programs that says whatever you type into it. And if you have been or are going to do that, then that's awesome. Figuratively see you later.

Masks

First of all, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've just been really busy with stuff. But anyway, there are a few different types of masks I would wear if I had a costumed identity. I'm thinking maybe a pseudoderm mask like the Question's. It looks like skin, so the wearer looks like he doesn't have a face, which would be cool. But I feel kinda bad about the Question. I never really payed any attention to him until they killed him off in 52. Anyway, I've already mentioned Japanese menpo masks and hoods in my last post, so that's still on the table. And of course, a classic cowl. Kind of Batmanesque, but with no ears or anything. Or I could combine these last two. Either cowl and menpo or cowl and hood; all three is just two much for my taste. Another one I like is the Guy Fawkes mask (V For Vendetta). It's a great symbol of freedom and stuff. Or I do like the concept of Rorschach's mask. The moving ink blots make that such a cool mask to have. Looks good with a hat too. Plus you wouldn't get bored looking at it. I've never loved those narrow eye masks though (with exceptions). I don't really know for sure why, but I guess I just think they don't cover enough of the face. A couple exceptions to that are Cyclops if you count his visor, but it's not really the same thing so I don't count it, and the ones like Green Lantern or the Comedian because they're a little bigger and cover more area. Or also when the person's identity has already been revealed to the public and/or the cops. The other mask option is just a regular full face mask like Spider - Man's or someone like that. It's effective, but I feel like it might get a little stuffy in there. I guess it depends on the material. That's all for today.

        

Element Gun

Star-lord's element gun is definitely a weapon I want. If you've read his old stories, you know how cool it is, and if you've read anything with him in it between Annihilation Conquest and the Thanos Imperative, you know how cool he is. Just in case you aren't familiar with his weaponry, I'll explain the element gun. It's pretty much what it sounds like if you think it sounds like a gun that can fire earth, water, air and fire. Actually, if that's what you were guessing from the name, it's exactly what it sounds like. How cool would that be to have?! Even a little flamethrower would be cool, but this also can shoot air or water at a high velocity, or earth that can solidify into stone. Forgive me for the fact that I'm about to sound like a bad infomercial, but: And that's not all! All of these things are condensed into one little pistol! That's right, folks! One pistol that can shoot earth, air, fire and water! Ok, the element gun infomercial is over. But that does give me an interresting idea (I don't know if it's genius, but probably not, so I'm gonna play it safe and not make that claim.): I'd kind of like to see what infomercials for things like this would look like. Things like the element gun, or a power ring, or something like that. I feel like the cosmic overlord type beings that hand these things out would either make really good or really bad commercials for space hero equipment. I don't really know though. And both of the people that read this blog regularly can probably predict what I'm gonna bring up next. If I'm gonna talk about one of Peter Quill's cool things, I might as well talk about it all. So I'll just say that I want pretty much all his stuff, like his awesome helmet, but the gun is at the top of my Star-lord wish list.



Element gun in use

Awesome helmet



Minions

I feel the need for an army of some kind of nonhuman minions, besides the various armies I've mentioned in other posts. Please note, this post is different from my armies post because now I'm talking about relatively small squads of specialized operatives instead of huge armies. Plus, I forgot all about one of the minion types I want most! I just read Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, and in Mephisto's realm, there were tons of semisolid slime beings, aka protoplasmic imps. They just jump on people and use their super-corrosive bodies as weapons. But as deadly as they can be, they really don't look that menacing, which is why I want those guys as another division of the extremely diverse army that I may or may not ever command. There's just something funny about them, so I like them. I'd also like an army of tiny robots, but for safety, I couldn't let them be too powerful or too plentiful, since as you may already know, I don't trust robots. Though I do like the ones from Transformers that come out of Soundwave as cassettes, then fold/unfold into 3D robots, like Ravage and Laserbeak. Mine would probably deploy out of a nonrobotic tank though, since I would have a hard time trusting a giant Decepticon, and also so I would be protected in case they rebel. Like I said, I don't trust robots. Well, there are a few that I trust, like C3PO, R2D2, the Metal Men, Machine Man, and a few others. (And I'm not counting androids here; I'm wary of them, but they're innocent until proven guilty.) Or some kind of flying sea creatures would also be good, kinda like Lobo's companion Fishy, or also, I saw a Doctor Who episode a while ago which may or may not have been a Christmas special, and there were all kinds of fish, but they swam through the air instead of water, so some more appropriately named flying fish and sharks and stuff would be awesome. Also, of course there are elementals, like fire, water, etc. creatures. Though now that I think about it, this is more than a minion, but I would positively love a Balrog. If I were to gain electrical powers, I'd probably create electrical beings to do my bidding. Diablo once tried to make what he called an Electroll until Spider-Man stopped him, but it's a good idea, since they can get into computers and other electronics. I'd probably go with a different name though. Or maybe it could be like Zzzzzax (I have no idea how many z's are supposed to be there, so I just guessed and put five).  And here is another time that on the page where I write my posts, the parentheses align perfectly, but when you read it, they probably will not. For a longer and more pointless discussion of that, see last month's Sherlock Holmes post.

Marvel Lanterns

In Blackest Night, each lantern corps temporarily recruited a hero or villain of Earth, so I sometimes think about what Marvel character would be recruited into each corps, and this is what I've come up with so far. Red is definitely the easiest choice: the Hulk. Think about it: he changes from Bruce to Hulk when he gets really mad, he's relatively mindless in his Hulk form, yeah that's about it, but isn't that enough? I'm thinking the Collector for orange, since his only power is his immense collection of stuff and always being able to find whatever he needs in his collection. Also, all his schemes and plots are to get more stuff, so he would be a great avatar of avarice. Sinestro Corps would probably choose Marvel's Scarecrow. I like Jonathan Crane more, but this Scarecrow does have the ability to instill great fear.  And being called Scarecrow automatically gives him an edge. For green, I can't quite decide between Daredevil and Captain America, since they're both known for having a lot of willpower. I'm leaning toward Cap though, since he's more known than Daredevil for having the ability to overcome great fear. Spider - Man would be a good Blue Lantern since he's always optimistic and hopeful, but I haven't come up with any good ideas for Star Saphire or Indigo Tribe recruits.