This, my friends, is why I quit reading mainstream comics years ago. I get a regular e-newsletter from Marvel Comics that I almost never read (I’m just not motivated enough to unsubscribe). Today, on a whim, I opened the latest issue of said newsletter, and through a series of clicks, I landed on their official Incredible Hulk biography/encyclopedia entry. Read this and tell me if it makes any sense to you. The plots and retcons are sooo convoluted and spread out over multiple series that even the author of the OFFICIAL bio gave up on trying to write it in a way that resembles a coherent concept. And if that guy can’t explain it in a way that doesn’t sound batshit insane, what are the rest of us supposed to do with it? How could anyone possibly defend superhero comics as a medium when retcons get retconned, and to no benefit of the history or the story of that character other than to suit the whims of the current writer.

And before somene starts in on me, yes, perhaps I’m expecting a bit much of superhero comics, but people get paid to write these things! These are professional writers! I wish they’d all take a cue from Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men…. of course, I’m sure the events of that storyline will be revealed to have taken place in a child’s feverish dream in three years… a child who will kill the X-Men!! Duhn Duhn Duhhhhhn.

I used to play City of Heroes, back when it was pretty new. It’s not bad, but I can’t stand paying monthly fees, and I hated grinding to get leveled up- I want to make a cool hero, go out, and kick the crap out of bad guys. What I want is a game that takes the basics of City of Heroes- the costume creation, the power pools, and the ability to earn new powers as you play- and sticks it in a single player, sandbox world environment like Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

The Hulk game was one of the coolest superhero games I’ve ever played- you had tons of powers/combos that you could unlock, and a huge world to run through, but… well… it was the Hulk. So, most of the time, you were getting attacked by the military, and you couldn’t really do that much actual hero stuff. Ultimate Spider-Man let you do more hero stuff, like breaking up muggings and stopping bank robbers, but it wasn’t quite as much fun as Hulk.

Anyway, that’s what I want. I want a game that would let me design my own heroes, and stick them into a big, open world like Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk, or even GTA. Super heroes are perfect for video games, so why aren’t there more good games that involve them?

In what has to be one of the most anti-climactic press releases I’ve ever read, Marvel Comics announced the official name of the 2009 movie focusing on Wolverine will be…

wait for it….

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Wow.
Color me underwhelmed.

Hugh Jackman will once again be donning the ultimate mutton chops (not to mention the adamantium claws) of the short, dark and furry one. Perhaps even more interesting David Benioff thus far has screenplay credit. You might know him from his work on Troy… or, more likely, you might not know him from his work on Troy. He’s also apparently the writer for the forthcoming screen adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel “The Kite Runner.”

Directing is Gavid Hood, who previously directed something called Tsotsi, in addition to Rendition (in theaters now!) which actually looks like it might be good. My theory (on Rendition): if it has Jake Gyllenhaal, it can’t be too bad….right?

This post is mostly in response to a conversation taking place in the comments of Zuzu’s thread about Wonder Woman over at feministe. The conversation about the cheese cakey/pin-uppy nature of comics (superhero comics, generally) was pretty interesting, but started to diverge from Zuzu’s point, so I thought I’d bring it over here to respond to Azundris’s points.

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When I took my job, I had no idea that I could combine my work and my hobby.*

* If you replace Dialga with characters from Xenogears, or Soul Calibur, etc.

I just wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to a few of my favorite web-comics. It’s got to take a lot of time and effort to produce a web-comic consistently, and especially to produce on that is consistently good. These artists manage, not only to update their comics on a regular basis, but manage to entertain with clever, intelligent strips and interesting and unique art styles.

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If you have even the slightest inclination towards film or men in spandex, you’ve no doubt by now seen Spider-Man 3, plan to see it soon, or have read/heard something about it. And in all likelihood, what you’ve read/heard has probably been negative (or possibly even awfully negative, if you were reading a blog of some fanboy/girl origin).

Well, here at 79soul.com, we believe in fair and balanced. Sometimes. And though procrastination has made this review significantly untimely, I will not be stopped… except for maybe a lunch break. In which case I’ll finish it later.

Read on to find out more about the highs and lows of latest installment of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man…and expect some spoilers.

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It never occurred to me until today, but I can’t help but notice an uncanny resemblance between Spider-Man’s nemisis, Kraven the Hunter, and that epitomical accidental tourist, Borat. See for yourself:

Perhaps its just their shared eastern European heritage…or perhaps there is a more sinister reason for their uncanny resemblance.

Dun, Dun, Dunnnnnnn!!

h/t Rachelle

WB is apparently gearing up the promo machine for the next Batman movie using a little interactive marketing.

Attempts by businesses to use viral marketing are sort of a mixed bag. On the one hand, there have been some pretty cool campaigns pulled off this way. I loved the photographs and the websites surround Shadow of the Colossus’s release. My understanding is that Halo 2’s I Love Bees campaign was pretty awesome, too.

On the other hand, sometimes they can… erm… cause problems (I’m looking at you ATHF!). Still, I think they’re a great way to reach out to an audience if done creatively and especially if they’re done in a way that ties in with what you’re pushing.

In the case of Batman, I think this was a brilliant campaign. The cards were dumped in a comic shop. The website has a pretty standard election board on it, and the marked up one is awesome.

My only concern… why does the Joker look so damned sad? He’s like a sad, scar faced mime.

Also. Hee.

“I Believe in Harvey Dent Too“?

Even if I thought the campaign was stupid (which I don’t), I’m a total sucker for a well executed pun. Particularly one that subtle.

For my non-comic book reading readers:

Harvey Dent is better known as Two Face.

If you read comic related blogs or feminist blogs, you’ve probably seen the controversy that’s erupted over a statue of Mary Jane that’s being produced. There are tons of sites linking to this story.

I think that it’s probably pretty obvious where I fall in this particular discussion. I was reading some of the sites talking about this, and one in particular caught my eye.

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