Of Sharks and Octupi

I watched Sharktopus the other day. SyFy announced on Twitter it was "our most watch[sic] Sept movie ever". I have trouble putting up with their Saturday night B-movies like this. The best parts of this movie were the Bumpers (when the show came back from commercial) that had a quick message from the Destination Truth guy, who made fun of it. SyFy knew this movie was bad. They even made a special Sharktopus theme song. They mocked their own movie, ruining the only joy I normally get out of it.

A secret branch of the government makes a Sharktopus, already an unstable emotion creature, and puts an electro-shock control collar around its head to test it in open waters. It runs rampant killing as many bikini-clad girls as it can. People hunt it and many more people die. The best character was the VW Beetle the reporter drove around. I gave the first hour 100% of my attention. After that every minute I dropped 1%. I watched it die but I hovered around 55% interest. I’m so glad to get it off my DVR. Wasted ones-and-zeroes I tell you.

So, why did I watch it? Last week I got into a debate, by e-mail, with Tuning In To SciFi TV about the popularity of SyFy branded B-movies. I hate them. I think they hurt Sci-Fi fandom in general. How could new people to the genre watch Sharktopus and walk away saying they like Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror at all. The counter argument, that had never occurred to me, was that it is a gateway for non Sci-Fi fans to watch the channel, and these movies pay the bills. Really cheap junk B-movies help to fund their TV shows (currently Stargate Universe, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Haven, Sanctuary, and Caprica), all of which I really enjoy. There is a huge disconnect for me between their movies and TV shows. SyFy single-handedly made Battlestar Galactica relevant. I can accept this now and have moved on with my life. I will watch a SyFy movie that casts an actor I like, though, which is to say I’m a sucker for stunt-casting. Can’t wait for Red.

Stargate Universe is currently one of my favorite TV shows of the season, along with Fringe, Chuck, and (surprisingly) No Ordinary Family. Dr. Rush has been my favorite character since day one. He gets how bad “bad” is, and makes what others perceive to be questionable decisions, to save lives. This comes off a bit wrong only because he doesn’t waste time explaining himself, so he’s seen as a bit anti-social. (Not unlike the print version of Sherlock Holmes.) That doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to get beat up every once in a while by Colonel Young, but it’s food for thought.

In the season premier everything from the cliffhanger wrapped up quickly in that hour, almost before we could figure out if it made sense. Instead of heading to the airlock and certain death, Scott and Greer hid on the “dark side” of the ship to survive the pulsar radiation. This makes sense to me, but Cloe’s magic healing leg needs to be explained at some point, not to mention she got all her blood back. We never really saw all the Lucian Alliance troops so they introduced new actors that weren’t in last season, since they let LDP kill Rhona Mitra’s character, Kiva. She’s now free to do The Gates. TJ’s baby-dream-sequence-thing actually worked for me since they had to account for Alaina Huffman’s lack of pregnancy. Now the show is like Star Trek: Voyager again but with a third faction on board; Military, Civilian and Lucian Alliance. Things were already shaky between Young and Camile, how will the new group cope.

At the end of the month a new vision of the Zombie Apocalypse hits AMC for six episodes of Walking Dead. The series looks great, even though it reminds me a little of the opening of 28 Days Later. I’m too impatient to wait so I bought the first Graphic Novel. Anything I say would be spoilers but this series is worth it. I’m not a huge Day/Dawn/Return of the Dead movie fan, but I love playing Zombie videogames and the book World War Z grabbed my attention fully. I’m even in the middle of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The production values look high in this series and I hope it goes the distance. With six episodes it feels a bit like a mini-series, and I don’t want to wait until this time next year for season 2 and I haven’t even seen the first episode.

My only gaming has been Halo: Reach. Daily Challenges are very addictive, and I don’t even care that I’ve ignored the campaign. Maybe this weekend I’ll finish the game on Heroic, but I’m really enjoying all the multi-player offerings. Why is it that every 8-year-old on Xbox Live sounds exactly the same. Are there Microsoft clone children being grown somewhere whose only power is to whine about being shot virtually? The real world might know my pain if the try calling this public megaphone. All parents should secretly play their kids online just to see what its like. Plus every 8-year-old is better at it than me, so I’m bitter. Playing some more Halo now…

Red Ring of WTF!!1!

This is my 50th Blog and this week is about Death and Birth. The Blessed Exchequer signed a Death Note with my Xbox 360’s name (probably its serial number) and it Red Ringed Friday night, right after I bought Call of Duty 5. Unlike a Terminator, the red light stays on in death, mocking me. I believe it died a quiet death. As the GPU slowly melted, it uttered the words “contact Microsoft” and “E74” and “there is another Skywalker”, then finally “Rosebud.” Luckily my Birthday was Saturday and I got a new one. In the Phoenix ashes of my 3+ year white-and-chrome 20GB model a new beast was forged; the black-and-chrome 120GB console of the Gods. I shall name it Mjolnir, for references to both Thor and Halo; and I guess Stargate, Matrix III, Too Human and Tomb Raider Underworld as well.

I was worried about migrating my GamerTag over to the new system, as a friend of mine, whom I will refer to as RW15F, had corruption issues doing the same thing a couple year ago. After watching a progress bar for a while it worked. Now I need to find a way to copy all my save files from my old 20GB HDD to the new hotness. So I turned a Red Ring WTF into a Black Elite FTW! I’ll try to get my older one fixed and bring it to work so I can play in my cubicle, too. Don’t tell no one.

The Army kept me busy this weekend so I didn’t have to much down time to dwell on my broken hardware. But, I did catch up on my reading. Almost done with A Singular Destiny, which, as a Trek geek, is making so much out of old and new peoples and places in the Star Trek universe its beginning to outshine the TV versions. It’s a great political tale on par with the best of Deep Space Nine. Read my last blog for more info. Now, instead of forging ahead with new books, of other franchises (Magic: The Gathering or Star Wars), released this year I’m going to dive into the Destiny Trilogy which set the stage for this book.

On Friday I went to my local Comic Book store and picked up some random titles. Of those was a new Star Trek title from IDW named Countdown, an “official prequel” to the new movie this year. I’m not giving up any spoilers but this comic is awesome. I have so many questions from the 2 previews (and 1 teaser), and some get answered, or at least made clearer. Get this! Unless, of course, you are under a Star Trek embargo because I think it is going to ruin a few surprises. I’ve already seen a couple panels that I wish were in the movie. However if this comic blows all the movie surprises, I’m going to be royally pissed. I don’t think I can resist reading this thanks to the last page cliff hanger. Damn comic books. In Japan you get a new story every week. Here I gotta wait a whole month.

I also read some Detective Comics, Thor, and Cable. Just a quick impression of each:

Cable #10: Great artwork, really like the airbrush quality. Bishop is a dick.

Detective Comics #849: Part 5 of a 6-part death of Batman tie in involving Hush. Hard to rate without reading other parts. Okay.

Thor #11: 1 year anniversary of the death of Capt. America. Thor visits his grave. Interesting issue. I like the Thor parts but could care less about any other god. xxSPOILERxx. The fact that Thor can talk to Cpt. A in the afterlife is interesting but begs the question, do all Marvel characters that die still exist for the Gods to commune with?

Thor #12: Loki is a dick in Las Vegas and I just don’t care about a story without Thor. Not even Balder is present.

On the Marvel subject I watched the first episode of the new season of Heroes last week and it kind of reminds me of Marvel’s Civil War from ‘06. I loved the Civil War, please see previous blog, and any reference to it is much appreciated. Since Marvel will probably never do a movie depicting those events, maybe Heroes can do their own version. See you next broadcast.

Choose, But Choose Wisely

The US Government initiates the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA). All Superhumans must register with the government or become fugities. Benefit of registration: government training, the government tells you who the "bad guys" are, government pays for collatoral damage, a chance to work for SHIELD and get payed, expose your secret identity, shiny superhuman ID card, and you're at the beck-and-call of the government. Every mutant has a choice, now. Iron Man sees no recourse but to join the government. If not then become a fugitive and loose the backing of the American people, who already mistrust superhumans/mutants/magic-users/aliens. Spider-Man follows Iron Man's lead and unmasks on TV, immediately jeopardizing MJ and Aunt May. The Fantastic Four begin to shatter as Johnny is beat up outside a nightclub, and put in coma. Reed Richards (The Dick as I like to call him) sides with Iron Man (The A'hole) but Sue and The Thing think otherwise. The Thing likes neither choice and moves to France to wait for things to cool down, and Sue leaves The Dick but stays with Johnny. Dr. Strange tells Iron Man to go screw and never bother him again, so Iron man makes him exempt (thus raising my opinion of Dr. Strange). Captain America is offered a job with SHIELD but refuses, so they try to kill him (try being the operative word).

The non-Registration Act side of things is backed by Captain America, forming the "Secret Avengers," who feels this impinges on the freedoms provided by the constitution and endangers everyone who gives up their identity. All the superheroes begin to go one way or another. At the zero hour of Registration Iron Man leads a special forces SHIELD group, called the "Cape Killers". They then go around nabbing up anyone who didn't register, with little regard for the civilians around. Many civilians begin to defend the fugitive superheroes muddying the waters even more. Any fugitive that is not killed is given a chance to join the SHRA or be imprisoned in the Negative Zone, through a special portal The Dick has created in the Baxter Building (think Guantanomo Bay). The real Nick Fury, still in hiding, sets up several hidden safe houses for the Secret Avengers.

The supervillians are practically given free reign to do what they want because the "Good Guys" are busy, but Captain A starts capturing real bad guys again, and even liberates prison transports of superheroes to fill his ranks. A false alarm traps Captain A and friends when a clone of Thor, with a copy of the Hammer, kills Bill Foster. This becomes a turning point, where many in the resistance turn themselves in, and some supporters of the SHRA loose faith. Supporters like Spider-Man who, after seeing the Negative Zone, defects to the Secret Avengers and is nearly killed, saved only by The Punisher. Guess whose side he's on.

Of lighter note is J. Jonah Jameson (JJJ). Upon hearing of Spideys unmasking realizes he's been paying Peter to take pictures of himself. This is fraud and wants to sue for $3,000,000. His son has been dating a lawyer (remember his stupid ass from Spider-Man 2?), Jennifer Walters, none other than She-Hulk, who happens to back the SHRA. JJJ still hates mutants but gets over it when she offers to help bring his lawsuit against Peter. Not until later, from an outside source, does She-Hulk find out what Iron Man did to her cousin, The Hulk. Iron Man anticipates her betrayal and injects her with nanites that rob her of her strength and transformation (I told you he was an A'hole).

Wolverine not caring about either side wants to know why no one is looking for Nitro, the mo'fo' who started is shite. He begins to hunt and tracks him down on the west coast, but not before Iron Man and the Cape Killers have go at him. The eventually let him go and he tracks Nitro to Namor, who is hunting him as well. Namor's cousin was killed in Stamford and had sleeper-agents moving about the country hunting Nitro, but Wolvie captured him first. Wolvie interrogates Nitro, learns what he needs, and gives Nitro to Namor, a fate worse than death. When Nitro destroyed Stamford he was hopped up on a power enhancing drug (like Zorn/Margento's Kick) and couldn't control himself. Wolvie heads for the drug manufacturor to find out they have ties with a Haliburton like company that rebuilds areas from superhuman collatoral damage. Very Profitable. So the CEO's of both companies devised a plan to get a drug out on the streets to make superhero/villian battles more destructive, thus earnig more contract money. Wolvie doesn't like any of this a kills all the heads of the companies involved. If only it were that easy in RL, uh, Real Life.

After a whole lot of other plot points happen the Secret Avengers do a prison break on the Negative Zone, amass a new army and fight it out with Iron Man and SHIELD. Backed by Namor, Captain America is about to beat Iron Man when he realizes how much damage he's done to the people around him he swore to protect, and surrenders. The US president grants amnesty to all rebels who register, however Captain A is arrested. Iron Man is made director of SHIELD and starts the 50-State Initiative. Many who still don't want to register either leave the country or stay underground, like Spidey, whom the Kingpin puts a hit out on. The Fantastic Four take a breather and Black Panther and Storm, recently married, run the F4 gig. And Nova returns home to see the world changed and leaves instead of registering.

Oh Yeah, one other thing. CAPTAIN AMERICA IS FUCKING ASSASSINATED. Boom, just like that. This whole story is a fantastic political alegory. This leads on to other things like Spidey's "Back In Black" scenario, X-Men's "Endangered Species" and "Messiah CompleX", and most entertainingly, World War Hulk. This is as far as I intend to bring this recap so you'll have to hunt down all the other issues yourselves. Sorry, I just can't do everything.

And this is why I like Marvel now. I haven't been more impressed with a story in a long time than a crossover that touched on something like 75 issues over the summer and fall of 2006. BTW, here's an amusing employee blog from Marvel. One last thing, I forgot to warn everyone: Spoiler Warning ahead. There, see you next broadcast.

Here There Be Spoiler Warnings

Today I returned to Clockwork Comics, of Orange, CT, (get it, "Clockwork" in "Orange", hahaha) to further my library of titles. There is something irresistable about 40 to 50 pages of sequencial art presented in a slightly-smaller-than-magazine size that I must own. In the mid- to late-eighties Manga was introduced by various companies (Viz, Epic, Dark Horse) that decided to stick with the American traditional format of comics. They flipped the images, translated them, then resized them to our size if need be. Something you have to understand about Manga is it is sold in Anthology form, roughly our comicbook size, that is intended to be chucked at the end of the day, like we would a newspaper. If a title becomes popular the publishers reprint them in a smaller book size. This size is now the prefered size of Manga in America, and strangely I'm not enjoying it. I love my Japanese collection, in Japanese, in small book form, but now in English it looses something. They even leave it "backwards" to preserve Japanese integrity. The smaller size also shrinks the beautiful art that shines in its proper dimension. I think, as an American, I'm just wired for my stories to be released 40 pages at a time once or twice a month. I used to consume Manga like breakfast cereal in its monthly form but now I can't even find a single title I truly enjoy. Nothing like Akira, Appleseed, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura, Inu-Yasha, Guyver, Fist Of The North Star, Silent Mobius, Area 88, Mai: The Psychic Girl, Xenon, Dagger Of Kamui, Lone Wolf And Cub, 3x3 Eyes, Gunsmith Cats, Venus Wars, and others on the tip of my tongue. This must mean I'm "old school," or just old.

However, the Hulk has a fascinating story to tell. The "Planet Hulk" story arc shows SHIELD asking the Hulk for a special mission in space. A weapons satellite near the moon had gone rogue and the Hulk was needed to wrangle it in. The Hulk did just that and boarded a shuttle from the Moon to the Earth. Suddenly a viewscreen comes to life telling the Hulk he's a danger to Earth and he'll be sent to a planet with no intelligent life but plenty of indiginous plants and animals (kind of like Kahn). He never arrived. His ship diverted through a wormhole and he ended up on Sakaar, a planet ruled by a Tyrannical Emperor who enjoyed gladiator games. the weakened Hulk was made a slave and forced to join the gladiator games. The Hulk fought and won, even helping to liberate Silver Surfer who was also stuck there, and created a loyal army, The Warbound, against the Emperor. He eventually won and proceeded to rule the planet. He took a wife and had the top scientists fix his ship. The ship, designed by Reed Richards with a booby trap, exploded when they tried to fix the engines, destroying half the capitol city and killed his wife and unborn child. He vowed revenge on Iron Man, Reed Richards, Wolverine (for some reason), and many others he blamed for this. He aquired another ship, a derilict that had been on Sakaar, and left the planet for Earth, completely unaware of the "Civil War" that had erupted in the mutant/superhero community. And he doesn't care. This leads to World War Hulk.

Also in deep space some little used Marvel characters were about to get theirs. Drax, now an intergalactic criminal, crashes his prison ship on Earth, is killed by escaping prisoners, gets reborn as something else, mistakes a girl, Cammi, as his daughter from his human life, kills the prisoners to protect Cammi, and the two (2) head off into space. Thus starts "Annihilation," a deep space epic involving the Drax/Cammi duo, Silver Surfer, Kl'rt (aka Super-Skrull), Nova, and Ronan.

Out at the edge of the known universe the Negative Zone opens and lets out an alien insect race, on "Annihilation Day", that spreads across the galaxy, and dubbed the "Annihilation Wave." It is eventually learned that the mastermind behind Annihilation Day is an old enemy of the Fantastic Four, Annihilus. Nova leaves Earth to rejoin the Nova Corps (an intergalactic police force) but is nearly killed on Xandar when the Wave destroyes the NC. He eventually forms a resistance group with Drax, Cammi, Quasar, and others, finally defeating Annihilus. The Silver Surfer, having escaped Sakaar, gets caught up in events and becomes a Herold of Galactus again after the Wave kills all the other Herolds. Super-Skrull decides to defend the planet, Zaragz'Na, by entering the Negative Zone and destroying the Harvester Of Sorrow (think Death Star). He succeeds, but sacrificies himself in the process. Finally, The Kree known as Ronan, trying to take over his people due to corrupt leadership, is exiled to a planet thats in the way of the Annihilation Wave. Upon returning to his planet, he becomes ruler but the Kree are so weakened from the battle with the Wave they are easily defeated by the Phalanx. Suffice it to say, all these people do their part and defeat the Wave and Annihilus before Earth is affected, setting things up for the sequal, Annihilation Conquest. And Nova heads back to Earth to rejoin the New Warriors, who are part of a reality TV show to promote mutants/super humans. He, like the Hulk, knows nothing of the Civil War.

On Earth, the New Warriors are being filmed for their reality show when they get word some minor B-List bad guys, who just escaped from "super-criminal" prison, are hiding out in a house near a school in Stamford, CT. Ratings being down for the show, they decide to "solve" the situation themselves instead of letting the more well known "heroes" come in. During the skirmish a mutant named Nitro decides to live up to his title and blows Stamford up. Among the deaths were a few hundred children and all the New Warriors, save for Speedball (and Nitro survived, too). Speedballs lucky ass was found in Upstate New York, in a crater, unconscious and without his powers. Once the authorites figured out what happened, Speedball became the scapegoat for the event, and is now the most hated person in America. Lucky for Nitro everyone forgot about him. This time a Superhuman and Mutant Registration Act (see the first X-Men movie) passes, and America changes forever in Marvel comics.

It looks like this recap just became a three parter (sorry). As much as it looks like I'm giving up years of Marvel Soap Opera plot I really have left out a lot of details worth reading up on. So, think of this as the roadmap to the Civil War. The whole Annihilation plot doesn't seem to directly affect Earth in the Civil War but lots of people no one's heard from in a couple decades get to duke it out on a galactic scale and that helps Earth in the long run. I do like how Marvels Superheroes have different areas or tiers of responsibilty. Daredevil, Spidey, or Punisher don't really work on the same level as X-Men or Fantastic Four. Ant-Man would never go up against Galactus and the X-Men would be overkill for dealing with the Green Goblin. However, I hope the crossover potential from the comics leaks over to the movies. I'd pay good money to see a Wolverine-Punisher crossover, I tell ya. See you next broadcast.

With Great Comics Comes Great Responsibility, True Believers

Today I looked at my disorganized pile of Marvel comics I had purchased in the past few months, and realised I've been ignoring my collection just a little. They deserve to be Wrapped In Plastic and put in a nice box with all my other comics, awaiting the day they'll all be worth a fortune. But they are already worth a fortune, in storytelling. In the past, I've been hard on American comics, when held to the radiance of Manga, but this is an old conceit I've carried since high-school. When I came back home from "Fraggle" Iraq (a little over a year ago) I took a few months off to reaquaint myself with my hometown, and spent time at the local comicbook store. I was immediately struck by how good the art is these days (compared to over a decade ago), and the quality of paper and printing. These comics transcended the simple, out-off-date assumptions I had been carrying around. So I dove head first into the deep end of the Marvel pool, grabbed a couple issues of each main title, and drove home as fast as I could to read them all. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I was learning that, in my absence, Marvel started a ball rolling with some huge crossover story arcs a couple years before, and the fruits of their labor was something called the "Civil War." If not Marvel's largest Crossover, than certainly the largest I had ever read. And I went back out the next day to get more issues until I was caught up. The Civil War is a brilliant piece of story telling that anyone who has ever read a Marvel title in their life owes it to themselves to read a few issues.

The Civil War didn't just spring up overnight. It was a long process of other plots that came to a head. It all started with "Planet X" at the end of 2003. Magneto (assumed to be dead but actually impersonating someone called Xorn) reappered, took over Prof. X's school, converted some mutants (younglings he could turn to the Dark Side with the help of a drug called Kick), moved to Manhattan, destroyed the city, murdered thousands of normal humans, raised an army of mutants, threatened to flip Earth's magnetic field, and went insane on a drug overdose. His followers labelled him a fraud and Magneto demanded to be executed when confronted by Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean. Magneto kills Jean, driving Wolvie even more insane, who then decapitates the big M once and for all. Prof. X comes to the conclusion humans will never accept mutants and its up to mutant kind what they want for themselves.

Two (2) new stories followed, the "Secret War" and "Avengers: Disassembled". In Secret War, Nick Fury (head of SHIELD) sees a threat from Latveria (home of Dr. Doom currently in hell) by the new Prime Minister, who plans to arm lesser villians with Dr. Doom's advanced tech and turn them into terrorists. The US President tells Nick Fury America sponsers Latveria and no pre-emptive action is allowed. Accusing the President of repeating pre-9/11 security blindspots, Nick rounds up Cap America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wolvie and a few others, then brainwashes them to keep the mission a secret. A year later Latverian PM with an improved-techno army of villians attack NYC in retalliation, trying to kill all of NYC's superheroes with a bomb. Nick saves the day, kills the PM, defeats the evil army, and deactivates the bomb. Sue Storm, Captain America, and Wolvie confront Nick with a big WTF! only to find out he's a clone (an LMD) controlled by the real Nick in hiding. Nick hopes all the superheroes understand the world is different now and to try to understand what just happened. An new head of SHIELD is secretly appointed, however Nick's clone is used in public.

Now it gets weird. "Disassembled" starts with an intruder that blows up half the Avenger's mansion, killing Ant-Man. Vision then flies a jet into the remains, pops out with a bunch of robots, attacks everyone in sight, and is killed when She-Hulk goes mental. Reserve Avenger's are called up to fill the ranks (like Spidey and Daredevil) when a Kree battlefleet attacks from orbit. Hawkeye is killed, but not before fending off the Kree. It turns out events were manipulated by the reality-distorting effects of chaos magic the Scarlet Witch was employing, getting revenge on the Avenger's for killing her children (which they didn't, she's just got issues). Dr. Stange helps whoop her ass into a coma and Magneto pops up to take her back, admitting he's a sucky father figure. What? Magneto? Isn't he dead? We'll (and here's the weird part), the X-Men encounter Shen Xorn, claiming his twin brother used to be at Prof. X's school. His name was Kuan-Yin Xorn, who only pretended to be Magneto for some reason and killed everyone in New York; not the real Magneto. Damn it. Sometimes these writers kill me. With the loss of so many Avengers they decide to break up, "Avengers, Disassemble."

Now for the good stuff. The Scarlet Witch had been trying to bring her children back, and using the wrong kind of magic that led to the whole Disassemble thing. In the "House Of M" saga Magneto had taken Scarlet Witch home to their island, Genosha. Dr. Strange & Prof. X have trouble keeping her unconscious so he holds a meeting of the X minds (I can just picture a Picard staff meeting) about what to do with here. Wolvie thinks they should kill her, but not enough agree and want to talk to her. (Huhn? weren't any of these mutants paying attention to the Avengers?) Back home Magneto thinks Prof. X wants Scarlet dead so he makes plans. When the X-Men and other superheroes arrive at Genosha, reality fractures and each person is living an ideal life, nearly parallel to the correct timeline. I hate this crap. Wolvie gains all his memories back and finds a mutant that can see through the reality distortion and brings enough mutants around to go after Magneto/Scarlet Witch for real. Magneto is holding a meating with the heads of other mutants/people/planets when Wolvie attacks with SHIELD. After lots of confusion and the disappearance on Prof. X, the muties corner Magneto & Scarlet Witch. In her insanity she tells her father, "No more mutants." She is so powerful at this point (don't ask me why) that a flash is seen around the world (known hereafter as M-Day) and 99% of all mutants loose their power immediately, including Magneto. Reality more or less goes back where it belongs. All the "missing" mutant energy is somehow converted into a large red energy ribbon that circles the Earth. And Wolvie still remembers everything.

"Decimation" picks up the mutant population problems, and a full scale search for Prof. X ensues (and is eventually located). Other things of note: O*N*E (a branch of Homeland Security) posts human-piloted Sentinels at Xavier's school to protect the dwindling number of mutants; The missing mutant energies revives an ancient evil in space named Vulcan that wants revenge for a past deed; Once Vulcan is forced back into space Cyclops banishes Prof. X from the school once a secret (dating back to 1974) is revealed; The remainder of the energy becomes an entity known as "The Collectice"; Vulcan takes over the Shi'ar empire; Quicksilver (now powerless) uses the Terrigan Crystals of the Inhumans to repower himself and others, but it doesn't work and US forces get the Crystals (citing national security) and Black Bolt (leader of Inhumans) declares war on the US; Fantastic Four breaks relationships with Inhumanoids, due to the war; Huge anti-mutant upsurge in human population and M-Day is considered God's wrath. The brief "198" story arc detailed the tension between the last 198 mutants left at the Xavier school and Sentinel Squad O*N*E left to protect them/keep them from the outside world.

During this time Bruce Banner/Hulk had been losing more and more control. During a fight in Las Vegas, which could be seen from orbit, Hulk was eventually brought down, and decides to lead a hidden life in Alaska where no one can bother him. This doesn't satisfy the leaders of the different superhuman factions (who form an Illuminati), Prof. X, Reed Richards, Dr. Strange, Namor, Black Bolt, and Iron Man, and the "Planet Hulk" plot is born. Stay tuned to tomorrow's broadcast to see how all this relates to the Civil War.

By Grabthar's Warhammer 40K... By The Sons of Warcraft...

Today is payday, and it being a Friday, the day is never complete without a shopping trip. I received an Email coupon for Barnes & Noble and headed over there at lunch. Of late, I realise I know nothing of the World Of Warcraft (WOW) other than the RTS PC gaming origin and the CCG starter I bought (and still haven't openned). In the sci-fi section I found an Atlas to Warcraft and a comic (produced by Tokyopop). Maybe this mild immersion into the field will prepare me for the day I eventually go online.

After work I headed to my local comic nirvana, Clockwork Comics, and hoped to get in a sealed, draft game of the Magic set, Lorwyn. Several new game mechanics have been introduced in the many years since I played regularly, so I tapped (pardon the pun) the owners mind for all the hidden meaning behind Plainswalkers, Haste, Flash, Tribal, Bushido, Changeling, Clashing, Hideaway, Vigilance, Champion, and Evoke. I miss the Star Wars CCG. I eagerly absorbed the new knowledge, but, alas, no one showed to play. So the owner introduced me to Warhammer 40K. I've heard of it, I've even seen people play, but up close and personal with the rules and figures and sets and dice (not to mention the substantial dollar value) the game is quite daunting. It appears to be an analogue (ie not a video game) offshoot of Warcraft. A turn-based strategy game with intricate pieces (from soldier to vehicle to mech to factory) to be layed out on a board that would make most HO model train enthusiasts jealous. You roll special dice and have special measurement markers for a blast radius or a flame thrower. No grids are used just a model battle field (scale 1:65) and measuring tape. It sounds clunky but after seeing a little bit of it I came to the conclusion it allows for much more freedom than some of the more restrictive "grid games", like the HeroClix series, Mage Knight, or even Star Wars. A new set called "Apocalypse" was just released with some of the largest vehicles seen yet, as well as expanded play for even larger armies. If I undertood this more I would have had an orgasm. As it is, Warhammer represents a geek passion I'm not familiar with. I should also note that collectors put great care towards the painting of the figures (which are silver but come with paint). An RPG is planned for 2008 and I'm interested to see if the two (2) games can be played side to side.

While I was waiting for a game of Magic that never happened I finally found the Star Wars constructible strategy game (as opposed to the Star Wars Starship collectible miniatures game), and much like the "Pirate Ship" game, half the fun is building a Star Wars ship. In my one pack I managed the rare Tantive IV and the common Droid Tri-Fighter (2 of 'em) and an ARC fighter. The printing on the punch-out sheets is excellent but having large fingers is a disadvantage here. These pieces will break if they don't go together perfectly. I'll have to see the game in action though to give it my full praise or not. When you leave me in a comicbook store long enough I start buying comics. Today was no exception so I bought the latest Superman, Batman, Superman & Batman together, Flash, Justice League, Green Lantern, and Spawn issues. A new Star Trek comic is being made called Year Four so I snatched that up, and Frank Miller is even doing an All Star Batman & Robin I had to grab. Tonight I will forgo the 360 for the large bounty of comics I acquired. Today I came across this site which details the current state of Comicbook Movies. I'm looking forward to the Green Lantern movie, featuring Hal Jordon. I've been waiting for this since high-school. When the Grayson preview hit the internet I was psyched when I saw GL, and now we're getting a movie.

On a side note; as I write this Stargate Atlantis is on. The store owner recommended this program tonight, so I'm giving it a try. Two (2) things have jumped out at me, so far. The character Dr. Keller is played by Jewel Staite, Kaylee from Firefly. It's good to see this actress still running around in Sci-Fi. The other thing I noticed is the name of the episode: Tabula Rasa. The phrase can be interpreted as "blank slate." This happens to be the name of a new PC game, produced by the gaming guru/development giant Richard "Lord British" Garriott, that comes out today. A strange coincidence. While perusing gametrailers.com I came across this little video showing off the promise of Sony's PlayStation Eye Of Sauron. This just goes to show I'm a sucker for a preview with Epic Music. If Ishtar were redone with the music from LOTR I would totally go see it.

That's it for now, hopeful next time I broadcast I will have defeated Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (HL2-E2). HL2-E3 better come out soon, unless of course it sucks right now, then Valve should take all the time they need. I'll need a breather after this season's rush of games. I'll hold off on GH3 until I see EmpTass play it like Slash.

Crouching Human, Hidden Geek

Not since Betamax and VHS have we had to suffer through a format war. If you are a gamer, this makes picking between Xbox 360 and PS3 that much harder. (Let's not even mention the Wii which can't even play DVDs.) Not only are trying to pick a system with better games you are trying to predict the future. If HD-DVD wins MicroSoft can call all the gaming shots and rule from the Death Star they plan to build from the desicated shells of PS3s, and profits from Xboxes. If BluRay can manage to win, backed by Disney and Steven Spielberg, Sony finally gets the glory they lost with Betamax. And, nothing happens to MicroSoft because the Xbox 360 still runs on DVDs, but the add-on HD player just becomes useless, except for the massive library of HD-DVDs people will buy anyway. Luckily I am not a Disney fan and all the movies I like will be on HD-DVD.

Things like the Remastered Star Trek TOS. November 20th, TOS season 1 will go on sale. Aaannnndddd, at the Virgin MegaStore in Times Square, the first 400 people to buy said 10-disc HD-DVD spectacular, for $217.99, will get a free Tribble and a poster. Okay that's not the story. The best part is the first 120 (of the original 400) get a free Toshiba HD-DVD valued at $299. (You also still get a Tribble and a Poster.) I don't see BlueRay doing any such thing. If BluRay fails does this mean the end of PlayStation line? Or will a PS4 still be in the works? Would there even be a point for another Xbox? Maybe as a "worst case scenario" for Sony they could team up with SEGA and have a joint console release, a SEGA reGenesis Station. Just a thought.

With the three (3) consoles out (four if you still count the PS2) to choose from each have the own benefits and defects. An astute writer has 27 ideas game companies could do to improve themselves and help the gaming comunity in general. The writer paints an ominous picture of gaming that is overkill in my book, but many good points are raised. I keep coming back to issues with the PS3. The PS2 was released before the Xbox and the Xbox turned out to be a technical marvel for gaming. This time around the PS3 came after the Xbox 360, and it is the technical wonder. You wouldn't recognize it, though, due to the lack of games. In Sony's defense, the PS2 took a little time to come into its own because developers didn't understand the architecture at first. The same thing is happening, now. MicroSoft built an easy system to program for (on DVD's 8.5 GB no less) and the PS3 seems practically inscrutible to all but Sony themselves, but only because it is so advanced developers haven't figured it out yet. Sony could meet them part way and help train them, then some one can come up with a game worthy of BluRay's 50 GB. That would be a game, like Grand Theft Auto IV should be. They have started a new advertising campaign, so maybe they are on their slow turn around, like the Titanic trying to avoid an iceberg.

I went to my local comicbook store, something everyone should do at least once a week. Indulge yourself, with a superhero comic or some cards. The current issues of Iron Man and Submariner as well as a one-shot X-Men title called "Messiah Complex" and a Marvel Mythos title for the Fantastic Four. The Marvel Mythos is interesting, as they take the origin stories of their Superhero titles and give them what looks like an airbrushed overhaul in the retelling. Very nice. I also picked up some Magic cards to see where we are today with series; a pack of Ninth Edition Core (white border), pack of Saviors Of Kamigawa (got a foil), and a starter of the newest series Lorwyn (sounds like a lost land of Middle Earth).

When ever you go to a comicbook store be sure to talk to the proprietor, they tend to be fountains of hidden wisdom, or at least "knows a friend" who "knows a friend" to get you the exact comicbook you need. The pearl of wisdom I gleaned today was, "if you're writing a blog, you're a geek." No doubt a facet of a larger truth. Issue 7 of Geek Monthly (yes, there is a magazine) has an interview with Masi Oka (Hiro of Heroes). In it he says, "A geek is someone who is passionate about something. It can be about anything. It can be about musicals. It can be about computers. It can be about our show. And you can be passionate about more than one thing. I would rather be passionate about something than apathetic about everything. To be Geek is to be human." My passion leads me to share with others the true nature of what makes a geek a geek. I wish to expand on Masi Oka's description to say that geeks are passionate in one or two or more areas of expertise, but that geeks also have some peripheral or tangential knowledge of things outside their realm. You may be obsessed with Musicals, but odds are you also know the names of the people who wrote and acted in the best broadway musicals, as well as a working grasp of Movie Musicals (and those that populate them), books about musicals (and histories of people involved), TV musicals, play an instrument, have a mathematical background, and (if a fan of video games) play musical games, or a music mixing program on a computer. Hypothetical of course.

This one goes out to EmpTass. The PSP will be getting the new Star Wars Force Unleashed game, too, with extra gameplay the console version doesn't have. Sweet. That's all I got tonight, except I heard there is a plan for a Castle Wolfenstein movie. Keep your wireless charged and standby for my next broadcast.