Joshua's Comic Journalizations: Fear Itself and Blackest Night, A Saving Grace

Joshua's Comic Journalizations: Fear Itself and Blackest Night, A Saving Grace: "A non-mainstream hero has his mythology expanded upon as an ancient enemy unleashes variants of the hero's signature weapon. No, this is not..."


More information comes out and the more it looks like Fear Itself will be a Blackest Night clone.

Preview for FF #1 - Out March 23rd

Here are the first 3 pages of FF #1 out next month.  I have never been a big Fantastic Four fan, but this isn't the Fantastic Four anymore, its the Future Foundation.  Why the name change since Johnny (Human Torch) was been killed off (for now of course) I got no idea, but they bring in Spidey to make 4.  Hickman continues to write on the new book as well as Epting still on as the artist.

 

 

Full Thor Trailer is Finally Released, and it looks good

I much prefer this trailer to the one that was shown during the Super Bowl. It may actually turn out well. We need more good comic book movies.

DC Universe Online - Review

 

Quick note before I start. I actually started this weeks ago, sometime around 23-25 of January and just got caught up in other things and forgot to finish this.  If you don't feel like reading this, just watch the videos (again if you like DC Comics).

First of all is the monthly fee. $15 a month (or slightly cheaper if you pay in full for 3, 6 or 12 months ahead of time) is not something easily to deal with and its a reason I won't play it for very long.  

I enjoy this game, its fun, has a lot of options to build your character, but I can't fully recommend this game to someone.  If you like the DCU (DC Comics Universe), this game is so much fun.  You get to run missions and talk to some of the classic heroes and villains of the DCU. 

You have movie clips here and there, especially when finishing a story arc, or starting massive missions.  What really does it for this game is the voice acting to go along with all of these scenes and mission text (which are almost all spoken to you).  

Lets start with the big names.  It brings back Kevin Conroy as Batman (the voice of Batman from Batman TAS), and also Mark Hamill as the Joker.  Two big names from the DCU cartoon franchise.  Then you have Adam Baldwin and Gina Torres playing Superman and Wonder Woman respectively. Both are from the great show Firefly by Joss Whedon, but also neither are new two the DCU either as both voiced character on the Justice League cartoon as Hal Jordan and Vixen.  As not to keep going, there is James Marsters (of Buffy fame) playing Lex Luthor, and Wil Wheaton as Robin.  They went all out on the voices for this game, and they do make the game very enjoyable for someone who loves the DC Universe.

 Jim Lee and Geoff Johns from DC Comics helped with most of the stories for the missions. So you know that they are well done.  I have enjoyed most of the mission stories the first time around, but I started playing a Hero and a Villain, and each one had "reverse" missions of the other.  At one point Batman tells you to go help Robin take down Harley Quinn, and when you get to the end, Harley has Robin handcuffed and you have to fight her, and as a Villain its the reverse, the Joker sends you in and Robin is handcuffing Harley at the end.  So if you are playing both sides concurrently it can get a bit repetitive.

Now for the gameplay. This is where I think this game hurts.  Its fun, but its simple, it is based on simple left and right clicks of the mouse and a few hits of the row keys to activate some powers.  It acts more like an action game than a RPG which is kind of disappointing to me.  Left Mouse Button is more a close attack and Right Mouse Button a range attack, and this game uses the clicks between left and right and clicks and holds of the button to preform combos.

Another flaw to me is the communication in the game and trying to find teammates. For one a team can only consist of 5 remembers which seems a little small, but that really doesn't matter.  Its is the typing communication that suffers. As the mouse has become and integral part of the game and added that the game feels like a port from the PS3, the communication is more encourage to be through a microphone with a headset.  You don't always want to listen to other people (at least I don't) and sometimes I just prefer to type. Where you can in this game, its just made as easily as it could be, as easy as it is in other games.

The end game stuff seems like a lot of fun as well. The max level is only 30, and if just a few weeks if you played enough you could get there easily.  Lots of battles against duos and groups that you really just can't handle solo.  Most of the bosses are so difficult that beating them solo is rough.

Overall I like the game, but as I said before, right now there are too many weird things in the game that I'm not sure will keep me playing, so I can't recommend it for others.


Finally on to the movies posted.  The top is the opening to the game and the that was released.  The second is come out last week (so it is good I slacked on this a bit), and it kind of a follow up to that one and in that movies timeline as well.

Jim Lee - the Fastest Hands in Comics

Jim Lee (@jimlee00) Posted this on youtube a few weeks ago

This is a very sped up clip of me messing around on my iPad. Original video was 20 mins in length; it usually takes me about 60-80 mins to get one of these pieces done using @sketchbookpro. I prefer using my finger to a stylus of any sort--makes it more fun. I honestly have to say this piece was not going in the direction I wanted so I stopped and got back to real work : ) but you get a general sense of how I layer on colors and work positive and negative shapes back and forth to get edges...like in painting.

He is one of my current favorite artists out there right now and is currently the Co-publisher along with Dan DiDio at DC Comics.  To the left is some of his more iconic poses for the two Bats and Supes, and used for a number of images and statues. 

Shot of New Spidey

So the new picture of Spider-Man in a full suit was released today.  For some reason it reminds me of 2099 with a little bit of Ultimate's look thrown in.  Either way, it looks good, still waiting for another shot, but it seems like they are doing a more Ultimates line with the new movie and making him younger.

X-Men First Class Trailer Finally Released

X-Men First Class Trailer




It looks alright so far. What do you think?

Trailers for "Cowboys & Aliens" and "Transformers" Instead

Cowboys and Aliens



Transformers: Dark of the Moon (that seems like a terrible name)

Transformers 'Dark of The Moon' Super Bowl Trailer (720p) from Michael Bay Dot Com on Vimeo.

Thor and Captain American Trailers

EDIT: So Yahoo has already taken down or moved the vidoes in less than 12 hours. When I get a chance tonight I will find them again.

Both of these aired during the Super Bowl, in case you missed them or want to watch them again.

Cap

I liked the trailer, he talked a little bit at one point and I got a little worried he is going to sound too much like the "surfer dude" like Johnny Storm, but other than that, it was good.


Thor

This trailer tells me nothing. It really is nothing but flash -> action -> flash -> action. There is a hammer and he picks it up.

Wonder Woman coming to NBC....Hopefully or Unfortunately

David E. Kelly (of Doogie Howser fame and numerous courtroom dramas) wants to reboot the Wonder Woman TV Series.  He has been the writer on a lot of TV shows, more than you realize, but what seems to be a majority are courtroom dramas like The Practice, Ally McBeal, and LA Law, and a couple of movies thrown in like Lake Placid and Mystery Alaska.

At first, this show popped up and people were excited, and then a week later it was said that NBC had dropped it just that quickly, and out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, they said it was going to be given a chance.  This show hasn't even started and it already has some strange stuff going on. Unfortunately, this got worse when someone got a hold of the pilot script.

1. Some how Wonder Woman will have 3 identities (2 besides WW). Diana Themyscira who runs Themyscira Industry's and another as Diana Prince. Apparently people know that Diana Themyscira is WW.

2. There is no Invisible Jet, but that is probably for the best. That should be forgotten really.

3. Steve Trevor is a government agent who at some point (years ago it seems) crash landed on Themyscira. Fell in love with Diana and brought her back to New York, but now they are not together (but will apparently "pine after" him). 

4.  Themyscira is like the "Lost" Island in that no one can get back, and when she left she is no longer immortal.

5. The script apparently calls for her to sing along with girly pop songs on the radio.

6. She just "waves her hands and the bracelets just magically deflect the bullets", not that she deflects bullets with the bracelets.

Most of this sounds like a dumbing down of Wonder Woman, making her more of a passive character than the aggressive character she should be.  None of this is set in stone, nothing has been filmed yet. Since it is still early many things can change, but even as this was part of the script that helped get the show started doesn't sound good.  Time will tell of course. But until then, it doesn't look good.

Wizard World New Orleans - the first big Comic Con of New Orleans

I hope everyone made it out to Wizard World last weekend. It really did turn into a great show.  Wizard was able to bring in a number of big names like Adam West Billy Dee Williams, and Ernie Hudson from the Hollywood side of things, and then people like Phil Jimenez, Rob Liefeld, Mike Grell, and Micheal Golden from the comic industry.  Hopefully Wizard World comes back next year in and even bigger event, but for the first one it has already been the biggest comic con to come into the city.

It started off on Friday at Media Underground Comics in Metairie, LA where Phil Jimenez came in for an hour or so to do a pre-show signing and giving away a number of free comics and art by him.  He talked to everyone and joking around a bit.  For midday on a Friday, it was a good start to the con with about 30-40 people showing up.

The next morning, I got up earlier than planned, so just went ahead and drove down to the Convention Center.  I got there shortly after 9:30 and see someone walking up dressed as Marty McFly, and lo and behold its my friend Stephen ready to go find the DeLorean as soon as we get in.  By that time the line has to be around 100 or so deep and there is a still a line behind us still forming. 

Once 10am hit, the line flowed very smoothly into the hall, and after a first step through, and walking by Ernie Hudson in his Ghostbuster's uniform, we quickly found the DeLorean, and the people working the booth loved that Stephen was dressed up. I loved that this thing was in working condition and even the buttons to set the date you wanted to go to worked great.








Stephen got the full Back to the Future treatment of them showing how everything worked, he even got a video of them setting his birthday as the date.  This was one of the highlights of the show.

After that it was time to just walk around and take in the show. Running into other friends and just taking in everything else.  All of the costumes (which were actually fewer than expected) were great. The first one here to the right are a couple of friends dressed at Joker and Harley Quinn.

One of the panels that I was really looking forward too was the Chew/Sweets Panel on Saturday with Rob Guillory and Kody Chamberlain (pictured Chamberlain right and Guillory left).  They talked and took questions, and one of my favorites was Guillory talking about the origin of the term "Graphic Novel". It started with Will Eisner trying to get the first book solely based in comic art published, and he knew that the publishers would not accept it if he used the words "comic book", and thus the term graphic novel was born. In case you were wondering that book is "Contract with God" which on a side note, I have an original copy.

 Another favorite thing of the show for me was the 2 kid Batman's fight against each other when their Robin father's were standing around talking. We were just sitting around, and all of a sudden a bat fight broke out.

There are just 2 shots of the crowd and 

 My friend Rhea and her brother Mage (real Mage not listed).















Finally a Saints K-9 from Doctor Who and another friend Damon dressed as bone claw Wolverine.

If I can stop being so lazy....(post Wizard World)

I have started 3 different posts between last week and this one, but none have been completed.  I've been slacking a good bit, also didn't do a whole lot Friday and Saturday with Wizard World happenings.  By the way, if you didn't make it to Wizard World, you missed out.  Hopefully I will get some Wizard World stuff up tonight.