Onefinemess

Posted By onefinemess on January 15, 2012

So all the covers are up, and some of them are a bit confusing.  I’d almost think I’m too old to weigh in on stuff like this – but these would have been some deep questions when I was 12, so I guess inner 12 year old me has something to say.  Let’s just go down the list.  Note that I’m assuming no prep-time.  Prep-time would give certain people a huge advantage (Beast, Black Widow, Hawkeye maybe, Rogue).

Wolverine vs. Captain America : Haven’t we seen this before?  Shouldn’t the archetypal pairing be Cyclops vs. Captain America?  I guess maybe the outcome of that match would be too apparent?  (Cap, unless Cyclops caught him full on with his guard down or something).  So, I guess this is the “main event”.  Even, I guess. Except that Wolverine will keep getting better, but I suppose Cap could get him down for a bit.

Storm vs. Thor :  I love Storm to death, but there’s no way she should win this fight.  It’s almost silly.  They probably should have done Collosonaut vs. Thor – that’s really the closest thing to an even match I can think of for Thor, and he’d probably still win that one.

Spider-Woman vs. Gambit : The match no one cares about!  No?  Well, OK.  This one is even enough then.

Spider-Man vs. Iceman : The money dictates that Spider-Man win (that and he always wins) but, realistically…Iceman could just freeze the whole room.  Done, end of story.

Captain Marvel vs. Rogue : This one at least has some history to not.  Not that I’m convinced any of this crap will make any sense – although Marvel swears it will – but there’s at least a back story here.  Still, unless Carol is an idiot and lets Rogue get close, this isn’t even a fight.  Seriously.

Psylocke vs. Black Widow : With prep time, the Widow would win.  But I can’t see how that would happen in an actual fight.

Luke Cage vs Beast : Sorry Beast, this would last as long as it takes for him to hit you.  I’m guessing there will be a lot of talking in this one.

Magneto vs. Iron Man : Except for the fact that Magneto is generally a villain, this should never be a fight.  (Unless either party gets prep-time, of course).

Hulk vs. White Queen : OK.  This is uh, interesting.  Hulk’s gonna win that fist fight, so this is going to have to move onto the psychic level, where she’s got a chance.  But, if that’s the case… I dunno, this is the only not like vs like match out of the covers.  I’m confused.  Then again, the Avengers have the Hulk + Thor (for this series at least) – what the hell do you do against THAT?  Namor, maybe.  Since he’s an X-person now?  Namor vs. Thing (see below) is another match that would actually make a lot of sense but that they miss.

Cyclops vs. Hawkeye : Should be Cyclops by a mile, but you know, ambushes and all so who knows.
.

Daredevil vs. Archangel : Umm.  What?  Are we out of continuity here?  I don’t even…

Colossus vs. Thing : I think this one has happened before, and the win went to the Thing.  But, you know, with Cytorrak’s powers on top of his own, this should be Colossus by a mile.

That being said, the premise for this series (or rather, for the main AvX series – this book is simply described as fleshing out the battles from that book, so it’s at least not even trying to be anything other than what it looks like) looks somewhat terrible, even with all the “work” they’ve done to make there be an actual reason for the two big cash co-err teams to do battle.  STILL.  There is something to be said for comics targeted at 7-14 year olds. I mean, we haven’t had anything like Marvel vs. DC in a while (Avengers vs. Justice League was the most recent that I can recall and they, of course, teamed up in the end – still, this could end that way : Everyone vs. Phoenix!).  And the books do seemed to have stirred up quite a bit of internet debate (old school!  x vs y!  Who is the strongest!?), that’s probably a good thing for Marvel.

[Note: All images from CBR article here.]

 

Category: Comics | No Comments »
Tags: Avengers, AvX, Marvel, X-Men

Posted By onefinemess on January 15, 2012

Q: People say “wow” out loud for WoW – are they going to say “swatter” for SWtoR?

So.  Yeah, this happened.  I was completely planning on skipping this game because… another Star Wars game, who cares, right?  (Don’t answer that!)

However, two of my real life friends were excited about playing and I like playing games with people I actually know IRL, so I went with it.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get everyone on the same server, but oh well.

So.  The game is basically Mass Effect (or KotOR, but I didn’t play that, so ME is my Bioware comparison point) plus WoW.  I mean, like exactly.  You have got all your standard quest types, having to farm massive cash for mounts that come way too late, etc. from WoW, stacked on top of the companion and plotline system from the Bioware games.

There are a couple of other little tweaks – like the fact that you can send “companions”/pets/party members off on crafting quests to harvest resources and create items for you while you are doing other things.  This is really cool in theory and in practice, although the durations of the missions just gets STUPID the higher level you are – currently mine are 15-35 minutes.  5-20 seems like it should be the sweet spot for me, but hey, game balance and time gated progress, right?  They have to keep people p(l)aying.

I have a level 40 assassin and 26 sniper, so I’ve definitely been playing.

 

The space missions are also great. I mean, they are simple, but they add a ton of fun to the game for me and as you level up new objectives are added to the missions, so even the starter mission continues to be interesting..  I think that’s what really sold me on it – the fact that hey I have a starship but OH hey I can blow shit up with my starship? WIN.  Also, hitting 80 missiles is akin to getting a mount as far as improving your ease of experience goes.

The story IS generally pretty good, or at least mine was up until recently.  I liked the Inquisitor plotline up through level 30/end of chapter 1-ish.  After that, it seems to be just getting stupid/sloppy/lazy (“force walking” = ingesting ghosts?  WHAT THE FUCK?  That doesn’t make any kind of linguistic sense.  Turning ghosts into macguffins = meh.), but the beginning was good.)

They also have the whole light/dark good/evil plot dynamic that I guess KotOR probably had.  You can choose various dialogue options that may get you Light Side or Dark Side points and potentially affect the outcome of a mission or dialogue.  Generally, they seem to have no effect save getting you light/dark points and companion points (no one seems to refer to any of my past light/dark actions, so I guess no one notices that I’m a light level 3 sith lord /shrug), but inside the instances (dungeons) there are generally a choice or two that affects the flow of the dungeon – like venting a crew out of an airlock to expedite something or taking the long way and saving them.

It’s also worth pointing out that some of them are really bizarre.  At one point, another Sith kills my apprentices (whom I never bother to train).  The lightside response is to bribe him to leave??  You have to actually take a darkside point hit in order to fight the bastard.  Other times the “light” choice will be more “evil” on an “average human moral compass” kind of level… I wonder how much of it is intentional and how much is sloppy writing.

This game has a lot of room to grow – filling in companion gaps (agent & inquisitor go 10-15 levels between companion 2 & 3 – and companion 2 doesn’t even really count!), adding a wardrobe system so you aren’t quite as restricted in your looks, adding gear coloring/dying, fleshing out their legacy system (right now you just choose a last name that is account wide and dump xp into that “legacy”, but nothing happens), adding more visual options, instances, free range space missions, etc.   I’m curious to see what their update strategy looks like… I’ll be around for a little while at least.

Category: gaming, MMO Diaries | No Comments »
Tags: Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWtoR

Posted By onefinemess on December 31, 2011

I know I haven’t been posting much but *hey* I still exist.    Some of you may remember me from such posts as by 2010 iMM post and it’s grandpa-cousin: 2007 iMM.

So.

Avengersland : Looks pretty similar to last year, aside from some changes to the Avengers Academy group:

• Luke Cage : Still doing his thing, running the New Avengers & the Thunderbolts.
• Baby Cage/Jones : Still not hyper-aged to a zombie death machine!
• Shang Chi pops up occasionally in Secret Avengers.
• Blackpantherdevil : Still doesn’t make any sense to me.   It exists – but I think it’s gotten canceled and is wrapping up soon.
• Storm : Is an Avenger now too!  I forgot she filled in for the FF for an arc, so it looks like now she’s been a part of all 3 of Marvel’s major franchise teams.
• Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling : Young Avengers have been appearing in the super-sporadic Children’s Crusade series.  I think they are pretty much locked down until that is over.
• Avengers Academy continues to look more and more like the actual kids of today.
• A new White Tiger joined the team, bringing the Latino/a count up to a whopping 2.
• Striker recently came out to one of his new teammates, who also happens to be bi (I think it’s Katie Powers – whichever Powers daughter was in the Runaways arc.)
• Hazmat & Mettle are still around.
• Wizkid is in the supporting cast now.
• War Machine has his own book again – 11 or so issues so far.  He’s also in Secret Avengers sometimes.
• The new Goliath is in Wonder Man’s “Revengers” anti-avenger team.
• Centurius (I had to look him up too) is on the Thunderbolts B team.

Hulkland

• Amadeus Cho has been sadly absent for a while now, although he did appear in one of the Fear Itself minis alongside Spidergirl, the new Thunderstrike, X-23 & the new Power Man.

Xland

• Storm is on two X-teams (Uncanny & adjective-less) and an Avenger, so she’s all over the place right now.
• Jubilee (Vampilee?) is still getting lots of panel time, and a current member of the adjectiveless book.  She also had a decent arc in the Wolverine & Jubilee 4-issue mini-series.
• Karma has been mostly sidelined taking care of that faceless dude for a while.  But – she’ll be back in the Astonishing X-Men next year under Marjorie Liu’s pen – so I’m *really* looking forward to that.
• Dani Moonstar is still kicking entirely too much ass for a non-mutant in a mutant book (;) ), and leading the New Mutants now (Sam is off in Wolverine’s X-Men book in semi-limbo).
• Sunspot is still around as well.  I think I even saw him flying once or twice, so that aspect of his powers may still be around.
• Northstar is (mostly) over/on loan to the Alpha Flight mini-series while it runs its course, but it looks like he’ll be in Liu’s X-team as well.
• Warpath was team-less most of the year, but recently moved over to Storm’s team in the adjectiveless book.
• Richtor is re-powered and still with X-Factor.  His relationship with Shatterstar continues to get page & plot time.
• Monet is also still with X-Factor.
• Darwin has been mostly awol, after one weird stand-alone story.
• Armor was in Astonishing for most of the year, I think.  At the moment she is team-less.
• Daken has had a solo book all year, but that is ending in the next couple months.  He’s still an asshole.
• Velocidad is still with the Generation Hope team
• but Idie is not.  She was the pivot point (?) for the major x-event this year (Schism), and then moved over to being a supporting character in the new Wolverine & the X-Men (which is much better than I expected) book.  She’s gotten a few lines in each issue so far.
• Prodigy is still around (and still powerless, yet I think the Cuckoos restored his memory of the abilities he had copied or something) on Utopia and turns up in a panel or two from time to time.
• Anole had an arc in a limited series this year with Rockslide, and turns up from time to time.  He moved over to Wolverine’s book/school.

Elsewhere

• Misty Knight headlined a new Heroes for Hire incarnation that has already gone under, but followed that up with a Villains for Hire mini in progress.  I’m still pissed/bummed about her child with Iron Fist being unwrote.
• Secret Warriors wound down, and only Quake (who I think is white??) is still around.  So there’s a couple of cool minority characters sitting around in limbo now.
• I want to say the Blue Marvel turned up in a one off issue somewhere fighting Hyperion or something…but that may have been last year.  Either way, I hope he winds up somewhere out of limbo in 2012.  Maybe he was in a panel or two of Fear Itself or something – you’d think something like that would be hard to avoid.
• There’s a new (Latina) Miss America in the Teen Brigade, featured in Joe Casey’s Vengeance series this year.
• Angel Salvadore (still powerless) also appeared in the Vengeance series.
• The new Power Man had a limited series with Iron Fist, as well as appearing in a Fear Itself tie-in mini with X-23, Thunderstrike, Amadeus Cho & Spidergirl.

That’s it for now.  I’ll add more as I remember/discover it.

Marvel has been introducing a decent number of new minority characters in its newer titles (Generation Hope, Avengers Academy, Vengeance, Secret Warriors).  Hopefully some of them stick around.  Also, next year needs more Cho.

Category: Comics, pullbox | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By onefinemess on November 16, 2011

Has anyone else checked them out?

Not sure how  I stumbled onto them (mention in RS?  Pandora?) but the covers album is worth every $.  The other 3 are fairly straight rock/punk/post/-ish/whatever, pretty solid.  But the covers album really gives Nina’s voice a chance to shine (imho).

Observe:

Exhibit 2:

Anyway, check ‘em out.  Prowl youtube and such.   Back to you regularly scheduled non-updates.

 

Category: audio, Music, video | No Comments »
Tags: girl in a coma

Posted By onefinemess on October 6, 2011

Not that I’ve been blogging much lately in general… but we just had son/baby#3 on the 26th of September, so that’s been keeping me a little more occupied than normal.

8lbs 4oz, healthy.  Long labor, lots of work for my wife (natural birth :) ).  I just tried to help out and be supportive.  Truly inspiring to be a part of.  Moving, bonding experience.  My wife is awesome.  And of course, there’s the wonderful prize at the end:

But don’t you worry my 3 (1?) loyal reader, there will be more video game/comic rambles.  Eventually.  No self-defenestrations, please.

Category: baby, family, Life | 4 Comments »
Tags: baby, defenestration

Posted By onefinemess on September 13, 2011

It occurred to me the other day, or week, or year, that I pretty much just play MMOs for the pet classes.  Meaning, I’ve played quite a few.  Maybe not as many as hardcore gamers, but certainly more than your average grandmother or Chilean chef.

This got me thinking about why this might be.  I mean, what is it about pet classes that I enjoy so much? I had no answer for that.  So I moved on.  Into the past!  I started thinking back to the first “MMOs” that I played (I use quotes here

• a) because I can
• b) because I like lists and
• c) because that exact term wasn’t yet in use
• d) because lists break up monotonous text)

… which were…. MUDs!  [Note: It's worth following that wiki link and skimming it if you have no idea what I'm talking about.]  And some of them even have pet classes.  Which I played.

Indeed on, the MUD that I really got into – Everdark (no web page, but point your telnets at everdark.org:3000 for

• a) an awesome experience
• b) a blast from the past and
• c) graphics only limited by your imagination)… circa 95-98 maybe, the class I focused on was the Undead.

Classes were (and are – it’s still up!) much simpler than modern MMO classes.  Each class, there called “guilds” has about 10 skills and they all share the same resource system (just ‘spell points’ – no endurance/mana/energy/rage/fury/etc.).  The Undead guild, of course, has a pet!  You can, after killing an enemy, animate the corpse to follow you around like a textual zombie badass  (Unless it was just a squirrel, then it will be textually squashed).  The strength of the pet varies by the strength of what you killed – I think.  It’s been a while.

               . '@(@@@@@@@)@. (@@) `  .   '
     .  @@'((@@@@@@@@@@@)@@@@@)@@@@@@@)@
     @@(@@@@@@@@@@))@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@)@@` .
  @.((@@@@@@@)(@@@@@@@@@@@@@@))@\@@@@@@@@@)@@@  .              1974-2011
 (@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@)@@@@@@@@@@@\\@@)@@@@@@@@)                 In Memory
(@@@@@@@@)@@@@@@@@@@@@@(@@@@@@@@//@@@@@@@@@) `
 .@(@@@@)##&&&&&(@@@@@@@@)::_=(@\\@@@@)@@ .   .'
   @@`(@@)###&&&&&!!;;;;;;::-_=@@\\@)@`@.
   `   @@(@###&&&&!!;;;;;::-=_=@.@\\@@     '                 MudOS v22.1
      `  @.#####&&&!!;;;::=-_= .@  \\                                    
            ####&&&!!;;::=_-        `                     Admin: Skywise
             ###&&!!;;:-_=                          Arches: Phoebe, Zack
              ##&&!;::_=                                   Nameless, Bax
             ##&&!;:=
            ##&&!:-           _____                   _            _
           #&!;:-            | ____|_   _____ _ __ __| | __ _ _ __| | __
          #&!;=              |  _| \ \ / / _ \ '__/ _` |/ _` | '__| |/ /
          #&!-               | |___ \ V /  __/ | | (_| | (_| | |  |   <
           #&=               |_____| \_/ \___|_|  \__,_|\__,_|_|  |_|\_\
   jgs      #&-
            \\#/'
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Rest thy weary feet, and be our 'guest'.
What is your name:

[ascii'd above: The Everdark login screen, partially cut off because my blog is scrawny. ]

[TANGENT

One thing worth noting about MUDs, and definitely Everdark, is that a quest on a mud is completely unlike what you are used to from quests in MMOs these days. I mean... for one there were no online hint sources - many muds would destroy your character and ban you if they caught you doing something like that anyway, but the ones I played just weren't big enough to have fan-based web pages (many had their own pages).  For another thing, the quests were actually hard.  I don't mean hard like you needed a 60 person raid, I mean hard like you had to use your goddam brain.    Many, Everdark in particular, incorporated complex puzzles in addition to the standard monster slaying.  Some quests were simple, some took months to figure out, and some many people never figured out.  There was definitely something to the feeling that you accomplished something that only 10% of the population had.

TANGENT]

As near as I can tell, Everdark must have initiated my love of pet classes.  I tried a few of the other guilds – I definitely remember some time as a Fighter – but they had no pets so I eventually left & returned to Undead (it’s worth mentioning that switching guilds carried a penalty: a death, at minimum – it was harsh enough that you didn’t just go around hopping guilds all day.  BUT, you also didn’t have to make a new character to try a new guild).  Before this I’d played plenty of PC-based RPGs – the SSI gold box D&D games, the Phantasie series, Wizardry, etc.  But I don’t think any of them had any real pet classes (until Diablo 2, I can’t think of an RPG with a solid pet class) – I mean, sure you could call your party your “pets”, but there generally wasn’t a central “you” character.  So, the roots of all this must lie in Everdark.

Everdark pets, general summary:

• Druids & Illusionists get an easily summonable “dumb” pet whose strength varies with the summoners.  The pets have a generic “damage” attack.
• Rangers get a very customizable (name, sex, description) bloodhound pet that can be used to scout out other rooms and chase enemies.  Pets have a generic bite attack.
• Mages get a customizable (name and spell used) apprentice pet.  Two of the spell choices for the pets are not strictly direct damage spells.
• Undead get a variable pet – its strength and abilities are dependent on the power of the foe whose corpse you use.  It can also be commanded to use various kinds of equipment – there were/are a number of hidden “tricks” as to what it can wear and take advantage of.  Undead pets are the only ones who can wear equipment.  Undead pets can have up to three abilities (they are the only pets with multiple abilities, I think).
• Ranger/Mage/Undead pets can all be commanded to stay in one room and wait or to follow their controller, if I remember correctly.

I think some of the appeal is that I get to play with a mini “team” without having to rely on other humans.  Face it humanity: I’m not your biggest fan. I mean, I love people in specific – but people in general… rarely impress me.  So, there’s that.  Pet classes do tend to solo very well.

Is there more to it? I don’t know, maybe this journey down memory lane (this will be a sequence of posts, as time allows) will bring me to some kind of epiphany.  Along the way I’ll also try and look at the progression of pet class construction, gameplay & balance – not to mention the innovations each new game did (or didn’t) bring to the table.

 

NEXT TIME: Evercrac- err – Everquest!   More undead!

 

Category: columns, gaming, MMO Diaries, Video Games | No Comments »
Tags: Everdark, MUDs, pet classes

Posted By onefinemess on September 9, 2011

The full spread:

Breakdowns:

Since Fantomex was the final reveal, the only surprise here is that Wolverine is not on the cover – I’d assume he’s still on the team?  If not, it might be a bit more interesting.  AoA Nightcrawler was the only real curveball, and I think he was the first reveal.  Looks like Arcangel is either dead or  permanently a villain now.  Well, by “permanently” … you know what I mean.  I doubt an original X-Man will be left dead or evil for long (Have Iceman and Beast died yet?  I forget).

The writing here has been solid enough, and the whole Psylocke as a double agent bit is interesting… but, we’ll see, I’ll probably get the first issue.

 

Idie!

Although why she is flying in the wacky energy-effect dealio is anyone’s guess.   Massive red herring, I suppose?  Her powers are temperature (fire/ice/etc.)… not wierdo plasma aura.

Beast here kind of looks like Dark Beast (I REALLY hope it’s not Dark Beast.  Ugh)… but I think that’s just an artist thing.

I’m happy to see Iceman in one of the headline books… but Quire… double ugh.  I suspect he might be enough to keep me away.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved what Grant did with him, but I’m just not convinced that anything done since then has been worthwhile.  Also, he’s an asshole.  At least currently… I thought he had repented and reformed at one point?

Kitty & Lockheed back together is always a good thing.  Not digging the costumes so much… sleeveless Wolverine?  Retro Kitty?  Utility strap Beast?

 Oh God. I forgot about Toad.  He’s hiding back there.   Fuck Toad.  Seriously.  Especially new, movie-fied, Toad.  Not that the old toad was anything special, but the whole huge tongue always hanging out bit is annoying.  I’ll take Quire over Toad any day.   Bleh.

So bummed that this will be Carey’s last arc on Legacy.  It’s been such a solid run.  Hell, he managed to make Rogue interesting again!  And even a super-strengthless, groundbound rogue.  Although there were threads about her having access to old powers that haven’t been picked back up yet.  Bummer. I like that Frenzy is sticking around, she has a nice potential arc based on the whole memory of Age of X thing.  She seems to be the only one getting any mileage out of that.

Welcome back Rachel!  A cast of 4?  Going to be one of the 2 or 3 books I actually look forward to.

The only surprises here were Havok & Polaris coming “back”, as it were, but Havok was the first reveal so Polaris was kind of a given.  Looks like.. Darwin’s missing?  Anyone else?  Normally a cast this big might be overkill, but Peter David has been doing really well with the large cast stuff so far, so I’m not worried.

I’m very, very curious how Havok is going to play into the whole “investigations” thing.  I like him as a leader, but I like Jamie way more as the leader for this incarnation of X-Factor… dunno what will happen there, but I’d bet that’s one of the initial plot points.

Looks like soulless Guido is still kicking around… curious where that is going.

I hate to say it, but I kind of hope David takes a swing at the Longshot/Shatterstar parenthood thing.  He’s made some cracks about it on panel, but nothing serious yet.  Just because I’m curious how he’d work that into the whole tapestry he’s got going on.

Still looks to be my #1 X-Book.

Final thoughts on the reboot?

I’ll probably pick up the first issues of each, but currently only Legacy & X-Factor are on my actual pull list.  I may get Wolverine’s book if Quire & Toad are not too obnoxious.  Maybe Jubilee’s X-Men team.   Most likely no: X-Force & Generation Hope.  Everything in between is up in the air.

 

Category: Comics | 2 Comments »
Tags: ReGenesis, Wolverine and the X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men Legacy

Posted By onefinemess on September 8, 2011

Alright, now that the rosters (at least for the initial covers) for the post-Schism/ReGenesis/whatever blue team(s) are out, here are my thoughts (because I know you care):

Here’s the full cover-merge spread:

And the breakdown/zooms:

I have to say that I’m really not feeling Shaw anywhere in an X-Book.  I never found him to have *any* redeeming characteristics (unlike Magneto, who’s had them for a long time, or the White Queen & Sage who were convincingly (to me) retconned (in the case of Sage) or had a pretty solid turnaround).  That’s not to say we couldn’t be seeing another White Queen turnaround here BUT.  Do we need it?  Is anything about Shirtless Shaw interesting enough to make it worthwhile?

Idie was my favorite cast member, so I’m pretty bummed to see her as the trade for Shaw.  Hopefully she’ll wind up in Wolverine’s team (as one might expect, given Schism so far) and not dead or in Limbo.

Still trying to wrap my head around how sticking Shaw with the mutant messiah is a good idea, from anyone’s perspective….

 

Well.

Psylocke (and possible Domino??) is pulling a Wolverin— er, double duty (as she’s also been revealed as being in X-Force, one of the team Wolverine/gold teams).  That’s interesting.  Especially if you’re a Psylocke fan.  I’m not a huge one, but I don’t dislike her (I have to admit, I do miss the ~1988 armored look though).

Mostly I’m happy to see Warpath back somewhere and Jubilee & Storm on a team.  This is pretty female heavy team too.  As in, extremely.  Probably top heavy too, knowing comic artists.  As others on the net  have pointed out, having Jubilee not on Wolverine’s side seems very strange, especially given the amount of effort he’s expended to help her lately (donating his blood to keep her sated, the stuff they just went through in the Wolverine & Jubilee mini-series, etc.).  I assume this will be a major plot point …

Having Domino out of X-Force, with Psylocke and potentially not pulling double duty could also set up some really interesting trust & subterfuge situations.  I wonder if Psylocke is here to take care of Jubilee for Wolverine?

I’m not understanding why Storm is not featured more prominently – other than that all the fliers in these promo posters are really tiny hovering figures.

Lose Domino (sorry, I don’t think she works here) and I’d be much more interested.

 Tell me that doesn’t look like a Brotherhood of Evil (Misunderstood?  Reformed?) Mutants in the making.  Magneto, Danger, Juggernaut & the White Queen.. oh and Cyclops and semi-amoral Illyana as afterthoughts.

And this is the flagship title?

I’m… “confused” would be an understatement.  I have to admit I’m surprised & impressed that they are letting the Juggernaut transfer stick.  It’s interesting to me in that normal dude + Juggernaut = fucking nuts.  So what happens when you have crazy tough mutant + Juggernaut?  I mean, does he even need a team?  Maybe the whole team is just to keep him in line?  He doesn’t have a rage face on so maybe he’s in control?  Why would Cytorrak leave him with the powers if he wasn’t a crazy rage-facer?  I guess I’ll have to read and see …

Still, I cancelled Uncanny from my pull with the relaunch – I’ll pick up the first issue at least (mostly because 1sts are a bitch to get back issues for if I ever decide to pick it back up), but nothing here reaches out and says “buy me!”.  Juggerlossus + Illyana comes close… but Danger says “nope!”.

Oh, Nate, you sure know how to ruin a cover with your shirtless self.

Abnett & Lanning have a huge stockpile of cred with me for the Marvel Cosmic stuff… but selling me on X-Man as a team member (especially this time) is going to take a lot of work.  Enough that I doubt even the awesome A&L.  That and a) there’s no Cannonball (WTF!?) and b) Magma is flying?  So she can fly now but we forgot that Sunspot can?  *confuzzled*

No Karma also makes me sad.  She’s one of those characters where I don’t find her powers particularly interesting (uber-limited, focused, telepathy) but I love her character.  She just has a … “presence” to me as a reader I guess, always has.

This is kind of a douchey cover in general.  Why do Warlock & Sunspot have those idiot-semi-villanous grins?  Why is Nate the central character?  Why is Magma flying?  I mean, she’s “Magma” not “Firestar” or “flying fire girl”.  Magma is heavy.  Rocks are heavy.  Please, please don’t make her some generic fire girl.

New Cypher is pretty interesting, Sunspot has always been one of my top 5 characters, and Dani is generally interesting.  Warlock really varies by writer.  Eh.  I’m in the middle on this one.  We’ll see how it goes.

Category: Comics | No Comments »
Tags: Generation Hope, New Mutants, Schism, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men

Posted By onefinemess on September 7, 2011

Some context first:

Who, where: Me, at Lowe’s, looking for a replacement toiler flapper (new vocabulary word for the day) & shower head.

Who else: The guy that said it.

About what: In reference to my toilet!   (Trying to figure out the model…)

I know I’m not getting this across just right… but the way he said it was so chock full (what the hell does that mean!? Note to self: research!) of god damned awesome.

Manner:  With a straight face, thoughtfully, slightly wistfully.

He then went on to say something about like “That was their idea for dropping 1.6 fast”, or something to that effect.

BUT IT WAS ENGROSSING.

Seriously the guy at North Portland Lowe’s is like the best/most interesting plumbing guy ever because, in addition to seeming to know pretty much everything about plumbing – he also knows a shitload about plumbing history!  Yeah, let that sink in.

Moments like that make life slightly more interesting.

In conclusion: I haven’t yet been able to spot a model name/number (brand, sure) anywhere on our serene receiver of of all matters fecal.  So it could be “The Champion”… but maybe The Champion got tired of the media circus.  Even champions need quiet time.  [Insert all your bathroom jokes here.]

 

Category: Life | No Comments »
Tags: plumbing, the champion

Posted By onefinemess on August 30, 2011

No, not this one:

Or this one:

Or even Wolverine Origins #14 or Wolverine: Weapon X V1 #14 OR Wolverine: Weapon X V2 #14!  None of those.  I’m talking about the most recent one (V3 I think… maybe V4 depending on how you count), this bad boy:

OK, now that that is clear.  On to the drama.  Just when you think a comic book character’s life absolutely could not get any more fucked up well – you were wrong!  OF COURSE.  Not that that was me, nope.  I was like, “totally, his life is always going to get worse.”

<.<

Anyway.  So.  SPOILERS SPOILER SPOILERS BLAAAALERS.  You have been warned.

Where was I?  Oh, right, at “so.”  SO, in this latest volume of the adventures of our favorite Canadian with claws (as opposed to Sasquatch, Wild Child (Is he Canadian?), or maybe Puck with some mean press-ons) – well, for the first half (issue 1-6 or 1-7ish), Wolverine gets sent to Hell (with caps, although where it falls in the Marvel pantheon of underverses wasn’t quite clear to me, or maybe it was and I’ve forgotten) and some demon takes over his body and tries to do horrible things to people he cares about.  Typical, right?  Pretty much.  Of course he escapes eventually (right before the X-Men are about to put him down!  Because Cyclops has a Backup Plan – not at all like the Xavier Protocols from a decade or two ago that caused so much drama) but – dun dun – that was the plan all along!  Send him to Hell (just because), then let him escape, then the real revenge starts!

Because the second arc is the “dun dun” part.   In which we learn that the crazy villains plot against him are just a bunch of normal people (well, as normal as you can be in the Marvel Universe) with a pretty understandable axe to grind: Wolverine killed someone dear to them.  Maybe it was intentional, maybe it was accidental, maybe they didn’t understand that the person he killed deserved it, or maybe they didn’t (lot’s of periods where Wolverine is brain washed…) – the point is just that they have all had their lives horribly impacted by Wolverine doing what he does best (aside from multi-tasking).

So, that’s… mildly interesting, right?  It’s been done before, I’m certain, I just can’t remember the specifics.  So, all this happens and Wolverine fights through a bunch of random hired goons to get to the “evil masterminds” only to discover that they have all committed suicide to deny him the revenge he craves (or so they think).  He doesn’t seem to mind so much that they did so, he’s just happy they are dead.  He wants them dead so badly, of course, because of the terrible things the demon running around with his skin on did in his absence, ostensibly at their beck (but not call, demon’s don’t do phones).   Which was part of their plan!  Enrage him!  Then deny him his revenge!

Oh, but there’s one other thing… they also let him know (via a movie playing when he finds their bodies) that all the cannon fodderfolks  he had to fight through to get to them were…. wait for it…

His children!

DUN DUN.

[Note: This is actually a pretty decent explanation as to why we've only ever seen one Wolverine-spawn - this little group has been snapping them all up, at least for the last 40 years or so.]

[Note2: What makes zero sense is how none of them had a healing factor or claws of any sort.]

Yeah, so that’s why he looks so sad on the cover.  I mean, that would seriously fuck someone up, right?  Especially someone who won’t let people kill Daken – who so obviously needs to be put down, right?  So one would expect him to be even more protective of a bunch of regular human kids.

My question is: Will any of this actually matter?  Will this change the way Wolverine goes about his business?

My guess: Of course not, silly!

The coming solicits make it sound like it will but, realistically… they ain’t kidding no one.   X-Force is solicited as continuing… as are his other 2 or 3 titles, which I’m sure will have pleennnnty of killing.  What’s he gonna do, research the people he kills before and after?   That seems like the easiest solution (and maybe the intended lesson here:  “Your killings have consequences – even fodder kills!”)… send some money (I’m sure he’s got a ton) & condolences to the families at least… maybe try and keep track of all the women you sleep with (since he prrrrrobably won’t stay fixed) to try and keep the kid thing from happening again.  Or kill yourself.

This has been brought to you by the entity that monitors the random comic things that eat up my brain space.

 

 

 

Category: Comics | No Comments »
Tags: Wolverine