Holy box art Batman!

With the success of the two Lego Star Wars video games, Warner Bros. has jumped on the little-brick bandwagon and is going to be releasing a Lego Batman video game (cross platform). Expect the same greatness- with a Batman theme. This game is going to rock. Meantime, I'll have to be content with Spider-man 3, Mario Party 8, and Super Smash Bros.

X-Men out of context

Not only can Calvin Rankin mimic other powers,
but he also speaks fluent jive:

Cyclops hates it when Iceman goes skinny-dippin'.
I'm leaving the 'ten foot robot' joke up to you...

The team-up concept gone horribly wrong:

TMNT kicks some shell

Saw TMNT last night with a group from work. (Just before eating pizza and watching the original cartoon to get in the mood) It was great! But only great if you're a fan of the genre. You'd still enjoy it, but not nearly as much as us fanboys- waiting for a good turtle movie since '93. The Grand Rapids Press gave it two stars stating it was too dark for kids. They gave Ghost Rider three stars. WTF? If it's not Disney, animated flicks get a bad rap. Especially when it's not generally a kiddie movie, like TMNT.

The story doesn't cover the turtles origin, nor does it address the prior films-other than a glimpse of things here and there. The story follows the four turtles as they now live separate lives since Leo's departure to train himself in Central America along with Shredder's defeat. Similar to Ghostbusters 2, our heroes are forced to deal with the 'what now?' scenario. Sort of a middle-ninja crisis. This makes the movie. The characters personalities shine through and Michaelangelo is actually enjoyable this time around- they all are. I heard only one "COWABUNGA!". Facial expressions although caricatures, convey realistic emotions with ease. Many smooth action sequences and plenty of laughs, TMNT will soon be added to my DVD collection...

Turtle Power!

Superhero Squad

Both Toys'r'us and Walmart are heavy with Spider-man 3 merchandise. Spider-man 3 Monopoly (lose your mask pay $75) and Sorry editions, various Spidey matchbox cars (wha-?), and shelves full of Spidey figures-including the adorable little Superhero Squad line. I picked one up....




Although I'd prefer Venom or even Sandman over the Goblin, this set had the best posed Spidey. Here's the other figures in the set....(TRU had an exclusive Spidey/Rhino and Spidey/Doc Ock...both eh.)


And here they are out of the package and in comparsion to other figures I have...



The Superhero Squad make for great desktop figures that don't take up much space. Soon to be added to my desktop at work along with the Fantastic Four versions when then come out.

Wanna buy a monkey?

Spotted in an old issue of X-Men:

Human hand not included.

Dig this- Windows version Alpha!!


Order now and we'll throw in Battlecat absolutely FREE!!

New Comic Wednesday March 21st

Small week. Just two books: Flash #10 and Justice Society of America #4.


As much as I like the villiany of Zoom, my pick is JSA. Great art + great characters (most of which I don't know anything about- I use to be strictly Marvel) = great book. And no, the explosion wasn't this weeks actual cover- just what I grabbed from DC's site.

Also bought some current Robin back issues- which I'm getting into as well. Marvel's been really blah lately. Civil War was a mess. Cap's dead. Aunt May got shot. Speeball became Penance....sigh.

Looking forward to more trades now- Invinicble vol. 3, Young Avengers, Geoff John's arch on the Flash....I really need another bookcase.

Zombie Town & Dead of Night

Just when I thought it was safe to say: "No more board games for me" which is a flat out lie...Along comes yet another zombie themed game from the creators of Zombies!!!- this time called Zombie Town.


Up to four players control neighbors fighting off a zombie invasion from the center of their culdesac, which happens to be a cementary. Each player protects their home from the lurching zombies and are allowed to kill other players- to get more ammo, health, etc. Here's the town gameboard and cards:



Kinda neat. I own the original Zombies!!! game and was angry for not waiting until the expansion had come out. Better art being the only real difference. Oh well. With this game you also get 100 zombies- if I get this game, I'll own 330 little plastic zombies. 330. Yow. Here's a typical set-up of the game...


My thoughts....Not sure about it. I've been reading reviews on boargamegeek.com and it's a mixed bag-mostly negative. Y'see, Twilight Creations (the only publisher to continually create zombie-related games, bless 'em) make rules clear enough for Mr. Magoo to follow.

The pieces are there to make a great game- the board/cards, the concept, and the...sigh...rules, but you have to put it all together. In most cases- re-write the rules yourself to make sense. I've done this for my Zombies!!! game and it's now playable. But you shouldn't have to.

As for the set-up picture above, it looks like it would be hard to keep track of all those different card piles with four players. Zombies!!! suffered the same problem initially, so I created a larger card to keep track of all the little trinkets. Might have to build a card stand or something...hmm.

There was also another game a bgg'er (boardgamegeeker) mentioned called Dead of Night. It's a free download available at http://www.freehomepages.com/schmidtlapp/page1.html

The game is similar to the other zombie games, but plays out on a Heroclix-like map. Everything is printed out by you- the maps, cards, rules, etc. but has been given high praises as "the best zombie themed game" out there. I'll have to look more into it, but I'm torn between both at the moment. Here' s a pic of some of the elements from Dead of Night:



Also very neat. But much more expensive (the $40-$50 range once said and done). Maybe I could use my map from Horrorclix? Although, I should probably finish my custom Ghostbusters game before too long...

All images from boardgamegeek.com. I'd take the pics myself, but I don't own the games yet.

New Comic Wednesday March 14th

Last week's post was way too long. From now on, I'll just post the covers and choose one book as my pick of the week like iFanboy (a great podcast if you're not already listening to it).


Books I bought: Robin #160, Teen Titans #44, Spider-man: Reign #4, and The New Avengers #28


My pick of the week: Spider-Man Reign# 4. A four issue mini that reads like The Dark Knight Returns- but replaces Bats with Spidey and Frank Miller with Kaare Andrews. The book could have easily fallen under the current 'The End' minis- but far surpasses what has qualified for those stories. Not the typical Spider-man book- but I'm okay with that. A must have.

Blind Sketching

Here's one of my sketches from a recent game of Cranium. The phrase I had to sketch BLIND was 'Treasure Island'. I thought I nailed it with the parrot- but my partner didn't guess it. Rats.
Probably would have helped to draw an actual island or even a treasure for that matter.

Squirrel Attack 2: Squirrels attack my parents

It seems the squirrels are starting a revolution. Not long after my squirrel incident, (scroll down for previous post) my parent shared a similar story of terror. The squirrels in Illinois must be in better shape than the ones here in Michigan. Check this out...




What chance have we against these acrobatic varmints? RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

Heroclix Tournament

Played in a Heroclix Tournament (with friend Dan of d-r-m fame) celebrating the release of the current DC Origins set. You bought three boosters and used what you could to assemble your team for three 15 minute rounds. My team consisted of The Ray, The Question, The Atom, Wildcat, and a Legionaire pog civilian. Although I didn't win the tourney- I had a great time playing feverish matches against unknown combatants. Just for showing up and playing we received a LE 'classic' Wonder Woman heroclix and a Marvin and Wendy civilian pog. The map we played on was the headquarters of the JSA. We got the map just for playing too.

Saturday Spookiness

Picked up this 5 DVD pack of recent horror flicks for $30 at Meijer. These movies are bad (not Manos bad- but I like 'em just the same). My horror genre in my DVD collection is rather sparse* and with Halloween coming up, I've got to be ready. I have never seen Gothika. It stars Halle Berry who goes crazy. House of Wax has Paris Hilton getting decapitated. House on the Hill has Ali Larter (Nikki from Heroes). Thirteen Ghosts has Shannon Elizabeth. She's pretty...and Ghost Ship has uh...um,...ghosts... on a ship. And Julianna Marguilez from "ER" fame.


*My current horror flicks include the original House of Wax (Vincent Price), Creepshow, Creepshow 2, and Return of the Living Dead (best zombie movie ever!)

Spider-man 3 video game

Yeah, I know I said I'd stop with the video games for awhile, but this covers both bases- who wouldn't love this Spidey game? Great looking visuals and from what I've read in the article on Marvel's site, it's shaping up to be quite the web-slinging experience....

Set in an enormous, dynamic, free-roaming New York City, the game gives players the freedom to choose their own gameplay experience through multiple movie-based and original storylines, fully integrated city missions and performance rewards including improved speed, combat maneuvers and agility.

Three gangs are vying for control of the city, each focusing their efforts on specific boroughs. The more you take down in each area, the more the crime rate drops and the city flourishes. Ignore a section and watch chaos reign.

As you'll learn the more you play, the black suit becomes harder and harder to control. Will you get it under control or allow it to consume you?

The open world gameplay allows the player to decide how to proceed through the game and set their own goals. Should Spider-Man follow a plot twist, switch to an alternate storyline, fight off crime waves that threaten the city or explore vast interior and underground locations? It's all in your hands.

Amazing Spider-man indeed.

New Comic Wednesday March 7th

As promised, here's the books I bought for Wednesday.


Civil War: Initiative #1

Cover: Iron Man with Cap's swiss cheese shield holding the U.S. flag- Hmm, his side won I take it? A clean cover but with so many Civil War books going on I just don't care anymore. Feh.

Story: A bunch of post Civil War tales crammed in one hefty issue- the recruitment (by Sasquatch) of the killer of Alpha Flight to lead the newly created Omega Flight (as Vindicator). Tony guiding his team of evil (yet controlled) Thunderbolts to track down an unregistered mutant. Ms. Marvel requesting Spider-Woman's return to the Avengers, and some snippets of other issues including Cap's assasination. We'll miss ya Cap.

Art: Silvestri to me, is a future version of Michael Turner. Turner's women always end up looking the same. It's also a grittier step down from Steve McNiven's art. Possibly to show the aftermath/damage from Civil War? Who knows? I enjoyed the art regardless. A nice intro to the new storylines to come. Pick this up.



Fantastic Four #543

Cover: Ugh. Why does Thing have so many teeth? When has he ever smiled that much?! Crop Thing out and you have a nice cover- although if you didn't know it was the FF's 45 anniversary- you'd think it was Johnny's 45th birthday. Not the best positioning of the characters to convey the message- but oh well.

Story: Reed and Sue telling Ben and Johnny that they're taking some time off to fix their martial problems since Civil War and have picked Storm and Black Panther as their replacements. Two additional stories- one with Stan Lee helping the FF fight Mole Man. Lee promises Mole Man a cameo in the next FF movie if he stops fighting. Lame. The second story- I didn't bother to read due to the artwork being terrible- something with Johnny at the race track with Spider-man. Eh.

Art: Mike McKone's is a perfect match for the FF. Being a family team with various emotions, his characters speak even before the speech bubbles do. Fantastic. Yeah, that's right.



Fantastic Four: The End #6

Cover: A terrified FF looking upon an unseen terror! BORING...

Story: This was the final sixth issue of the mini-series. It was six issues too many. 'The End' consisted of Sue re-uniting the FF and with the aid of Doctor Strange- then, travel back in time to save Franklin and Valeria from being killed by Doctor Doom. Only to have Doctor Doom escape into the negative zone, kill Annihulus and reign supreme there. That's it. BORING!

Art: I can appreciate Alan Davis's artwork- but the story ruined it for me. Which is odd, since it's usually the other way around for me. Truly not 'THE END' FF story I would've hoped for.



Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #18

Cover: Black costumed Spidey leaps to save what looks to be Uncle Ben from a PO'ed Sandman. I'm partial to this cover only because of the Spider-man 3 characters. Two more months!!

Story: Flash is on a date with Betty Brandt who share great 'date' dialouge and then she's attacked by thousands of spiders in the bathroom. Sandman and Spidey share some great banter as well. Funny stuff. Pick this up purely for the writing- Wieringo is an added bonus.

Art: Mike Wieringo does it again. 'Nuff said.



Mighty Avengers #1

Cover: Just another random shot of a super team flying towards you action shot. The speed lines are nice. Cho rarely disappoints. A better composition would've made me like this more. Does Black Widow's gun really need to be that huge? I don't see her running around the battlefield lugging that thing.

Story: The new-New (now called Mighty) Avengers assemble! Flashbacks/forwards of a battle with the new team and Tony and Carol Danvers discussing who and why each member is a great fit for the team. Bendis brings back the thought bubble to this issue and it doesn't work 90% of the time. Like Tony reading off a lock combo, and Carol sounding like a teenager with constant "yes, no, and man!" responses. Nice to see them back, but ease up before you kill it again. Overall, I really enjoyed this issue. I don't like the line-up of characters yet- but I said the same thing about the previous avengers- and it turned out to be one of my favorite books for NCW.

Art: Cho's work is amazing. Can pull off both facial expressions and action heavy scenes without skipping a beat. Ms. Marvel's nice to look at too- then again, all of Cho's women are.



Ultimate Spider-man #106

Cover: Not good. A skewed Spidey looks upward to an angry Daredevil in this splash page turned cover. What happened to the close up covers Bagley used to draw way back for the original issues? You can tell he's ready to leave- he's had a looong run on this book.

Story: Daredevil confronts Spidey to assist him in killing Kingpin. Oh, and Peter gets back with Mary Jane- doesn't break up with Kitty, and then Kitty shows up as a new classmate at the high school. Ultimate Saved by the Bell.

Art: Bagley is still going strong- but he's tired of it and it shows in his work.


Uncanny X-Men #484

Cover: X-Men fighting in space.

Story: X-Men fighting in space. Xavier is scheduled to be executed after the wedding of Vulcan and Deathbird.

Art: Billy Tan's art is rough (although that's probably the inker), but it does the trick. Seems like everyone is trying to copy McNiven's style. Expect Bagley, he was around waaay before him.



JLA #6

Cover: This isn't the cover I bought. Mine was a battle damaged Amazo/Red Tornado 'bot grimacing with Green Lantern's ring. Creepy and zombie like. I love comics and I love zombies. Brilliant!

Story: The entire JLA struggles to take down Amazo while Red Tornado is savagely beaten by Solmon Grundy. Tornado barely manages to win the fight unleashing a F4 tornado, only to end up back in his robot body.

Art: Ed Benes and Sandra Hope follow in the Jim Lee fashion of cross hatching, big splash pages, and page after page of good old fashioned superheroics.


Robin #156

Cover: I wasn't fast enough/too lazy to grab the cover image. It's Robin's hand reaching out towards a sneaker as the two silhouettes speed down the side of a building. Instantly caught my eye.

Story: Robin consoles the family of a boy in a coma for which he feels devasted. Following up his nightly patrol he comes across a potenial suicide victim on a rooftop. Robin convinces him not to jump and that he only need to talk things out with others. Heeding his own advice Robin calls Nightwing to chat.

Art: Cartoony but not over the top. Almost like a streamlined version of Bagely in both art and story. Minus the annoying teen chatter. Like y'know?


Good gravy, that was a long post- maybe this wasn't such a great idea. I'll have to revise this for next time. My fingers are nubs.

Bat panels out of context

Flipping through some old Batman issues (specifically the first appearance of Jason Todd-the second Robin) I came across these bizzare panels...

Rather creepy scene with these two. Then there's this:

Batman looks a little too relaxed talking to Gordon.


Pink, Batman? Really? And why so eager to find Robin? He was just taking a nap by that tree.


So, I guess that means Batman really is...

Geeze relax. It's all a clever prank by the worlds greatest detective, right?


Okay. Glad we cleared that up.

It's New Comic Wednesday

I've decided its finally time I should post what books I'm getting each and every Wednesday (along with a quick review) including anything else comic related. Spoilers I'll keep to a low- unless it's utterly fantastic. I've noticed with a toy shortage as of late, my blog has been more video games and less comics- for that I apologize to the many fanboys and girls who read this blog. Without further ado, here's what I bought this past Wednesday:


The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #9

Cover: Multiple Flashes running. Yeah, it's cool to see the transition of Bart as Impulse to Kid Flash to Flash, but it's been done. When your only power is super-speed- your covers need to pop. This falls flat. A pinch of Photoshop effects would've helped.

Art: Let me just say this category is according to my tastes. I don't hate the art, but I don't love it. Passable, but no Alex Ross or Jim Lee. Or even Mike Wieringo.

Story: The last of an arch in which Bart is struggling in Los Angeles with a girlfriend and the ocassional supervillian. Eh. Loved Bart on the Titans book, but feel he's straying too much from what he 'could' have been. Definitely needs more of a Robin One Year Later approach. Anixously looking forward to the next creative team.


Action Comics #846

Cover: Love Kubert's chalk sketch covers. Instantly grabs my attention from the rack- the contrast of the bright Supes in the center pulls it together in one nice image.

Art: Again, love it. I've really missed Kubert since his departure from the initial run of Ultimate X-Men. At first, I thought his gritty style wouldn't fit Superman's character- the clean-cut boy scout, but I've been proven wrong issue after issue. When Superman gets punched you feel it right along with him.

Story: The return of the General Zod and crew from the Phantom Zone, a mysterious boy with Superman's powers, and the colorful cast of the Daily Planet make this a great tale. Pick it up!



Wizard #186

Cover: Whoa. A dead Jimmy Olsen and a teary fist clenched Superman make this a must have for my coffee table. That would make any non-fanboy pick up Wizard to give it a look see.

Art: Uhh..gonna skip this section for magazines- too many artists.

Stories: Wizard's been pretty crappy lately. Ever since the jump to magazine format and dropping the sub-head: the guide to comics to the magazine of comics, entertainment and pop culture, Wizard hasn't been the same go to comic news source it once was. Now, it's the internet. Still, Wizard is now beefier, and with a new layout- things are starting to look up for my once favorite geek mag. More sketch books, comic preview pages, and that zany Wizard humor. I mainly buy it to find out about comics I won't have to buy- since they spoil just about everything- that, and it helps if the internet's down.



That's it for this week- Tune in next week for a whopping EIGHT BOOKS I'll have to review.