Tag: Comics

X-Men Relaunch to Feature All-Female Team (X-Women?)

Brian Wood’s upcoming X-Men relaunch will not have any men, making the book’s title a bit curious. Instead, it will feature an all-female cast. Initially, Jubilee will be the star of the show. Longtime Marvel readers will recall that Wood was the last writer for Generation X, which was a very Jubilee-centric book. The sparkly mutant will be supported by  Kitty Pryde, Psylocke, Rachel Grey, Rogue, and Storm. X-Men #1 will hit comic book stores and digital services in April 2013.

Wood spoke with USA Today about his decision to go with an all-new, all-different, and all-female team:

I feel like as far as the X-Men go, the women are the X-Men. Cyclops and Wolverine are big names, but taken as a whole, the women kind of rule the franchise. If you look at the entire world as a whole, it’s the females that really dominate and are the most interesting and cool to look at. When you have a great artist drawing them, they look so amazing and always have.

Any thoughts on Wood’s female furies? Some fanboys are already going nuts about the decision. Personally, I don’t see what the fuss is about. There are so many X-Men books that you can easily ignore one if you don’t like it. The bigger issue, to me, is going with Jubilee as the centerpiece. I never really liked her and wish Wolverine would bring her back to the shopping mall where she was discovered. Oh wait, he can’t. Wolvie is a total puff these days.

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Super Mario Bros. vs X-Men

Artist Casey Edwards is selling prints of Super Mario Bros. characters decked out like X-Men. The complete set runs $30 and consists of four prints that feature two characters each. Here’s the lineup:

  • Mario as Wolverine
  • Princess Peach as Phoenix
  • Luigi as Cyclops
  • Yoshi as Rogue
  • Donkey Kong as Colossus
  • Diddy Kong as Nightcrawler
  • Blue Toad as Angel
  • Yellow Toad as Jubilee

The art is…more

Artist Casey Edwards is selling prints of Super Mario Bros. characters decked out like X-Men. The complete set runs $30 and consists of four prints that feature two characters each. Here’s the lineup:

  • Mario as Wolverine
  • Princess Peach as Phoenix
  • Luigi as Cyclops
  • Yoshi as Rogue
  • Donkey Kong as Colossus
  • Diddy Kong as Nightcrawler
  • Blue Toad as Angel
  • Yellow Toad as Jubilee

The art is adorable and I hope Edwards does well with these. Check out the image below and let me know what you think (please!).

Source via Geeky Tyrant

Dave Batista as Drax the Destroyer?

Former WWE Superstar Dave Batista is up for the role of Drax the Destroyer in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The casting would have been perfect when Drax was mentally crippled. (I’ve read Batista Unleashed and it brought me to the conclusion that Big Dave is a mental a cripple or a brilliant master of unintentional comedy.) Sadly, Drax’s recent characterization has him wielding lesser powers and his original, normal intellect level.

Still, there’s room for hope. ComicBookMovie noted that Drax’s backstory will be updated for the movie. Most recent superhero movies have had some comic relief and an idiotic Drax would fill that hole nicely. Out of the actors being considered for Drax, Batista would be the best idiot. He’s a natural fit!

Any thoughts on Dave Batista playing Drax the Destroyer?

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Coffee Talk #551: Worst Comic Book of 2012

I’ve always liked Deathstroke. He was always one of the most bad-ass villains in the DC Universe. He’s cold and calculating, but has a sense of honor (which you don’t find in mercenaries these days). From his numerous showdowns with the Teen Titans to his sheer awesomeness in Identity Crisis to the start of his latest book, I’ve been a fan. And then Rob Liefeld entered the picture…more

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Tebowmania sputtering in New Jersey, hoping that Fifth Harmony wins X-Factor USA 2012, or getting excited for Anchorman 2’s December 2013 release, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’ve always liked Deathstroke. He was always one of the most bad-ass villains in the DC Universe. He’s cold and calculating, but has a sense of honor (which you don’t find in mercenaries these days). From his numerous showdowns with the Teen Titans to his sheer awesomeness in Identity Crisis to the start of his latest book, I’ve been a fan. And then Rob Liefeld entered the picture….

Even at the height of his popularity in the ’90s, I was never a Liefeld fan. His art — ridiculously large shoulders, squinty eyes, and pointy hair — just bugged me. When he took over Deathstroke in May 2012, his art still bugged me. He made Deathroke look like Cable with a different color palette. His renderings of Lobo and Zealot were even worse. That said, I was prepared for the art because he’s been drawing that way for decades. What I wasn’t prepared for was his mediocre writing. The early proving-myself-all-over-again issues of Deathstroke were replaced by wham-bam action. The thoughtful start was replaced with vapid mayhem. Liefeld’s issues of Deathstroke made me stop buying the book.

(To be fair, there are a lot of rumors about DC’s editors pissing off writers by not giving them creative freedom and often asking for last-minute rewrites. It’s entirely possible that Liefeld wrote some great stories that were mangled by the editors.)

The good news is that Liefeld has left DC. Hopefully Deathstroke will regain the mix of cerebral writing and visceral action that made the early issues so much fun. Looking back at my negative comic-book experiences of 2012, Rob Liefeld ruining Deathstroke for me tops the list.

Now it’s your turn! What were your least favorite comics of the year?

Warren Ellis, Gun Machine, and the iPad

Renowned comic-book author Warren Ellis wrote a blog post on how he used the Apple iPad to write a large portion of his upcoming novel Gun Machine. The post was a response to another one of my favorite comic-book scribes, Greg Rucka. Ellis used the iPad along with a “Logitech Zagg Keyboard Case for iPad,” PlainText, iA Writer, QuickOffice Pro HD, and the outstanding Dropbox cloud service.

There are a few takeaways here. First, I’m reminded of tech pundits that dismissed the iPad as a content creation tool. While I always viewed the iPad more as a consumption device (which is what most people use it for, primarily), I’ve been blown away by the amount of great apps that allow for content creation. There are some truly (insanely?) great music, office, and image editing apps out there. There have been several days when this blog has been updated through a combination of Clean Writer, Filterstorm, and WordPress. As far as content creation goes, the iPad has exceeded most people’s expectations.

Secondly, Warren Ellis has always been one of the coolest cats writing comics. (You must read his run on The Authority!) The fact that he wrote a large chunk of his novel on an iPad makes him even cooler.

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Coffee Talk #549: Best of 2012 Recap

Just in case you missed it, here are my — and more importantly, your fellow RPadholics’ — picks for the “Best of 2012.”

Best TV Show of the Year
Best Comic Book of the Year
Best Gadget of the Year
Best Movie of the Year
Best Game of the Year

Now get ready to enter the bitter barn, as the rest of this week’s Coffee Talk columns will be about…more

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, getting review units of phones more than a month after the product has been released, Nonito Donaire’s 4-0 2012, or boxing’s return to network television, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Just in case you missed it, here are my — and more importantly, your fellow RPadholics’ — picks for the “Best of 2012.”

Best TV Show of the Year
Best Comic Book of the Year
Best Gadget of the Year
Best Movie of the Year
Best Game of the Year

Now get ready to enter the bitter barn, as the rest of this week’s Coffee Talk columns will be about games, movies, TV shows, etc. that you didn’t like in 2012. Hopefully things will get nasty as you talk about your “Worst of 2012” experiences!

Superman Man of Steel Trailer #2

People are going gaga over the second trailer for Man of Steel. While I enjoyed it and was impressed, I also feel a bit let down from all the Facebook/Twitter hype. It’s definitely very good, but I was expecting an inner-fanboy implosion (and that didn’t happen). Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the trailer. Check it out and kindly share your thoughts in the comments section! Continue reading “Superman Man of Steel Trailer #2”

Coffee Talk #545: Best Comic Book of 2012

In 2011, Geoff Johns reinvented Aquaman by acknowledging the jokes made about the character and showing what a bad-ass he can be. In many ways, it reminded me of his work in Blackest Night; he acknowledged the ridiculousness of having power rings in several different colors and still made the plot work. With Aquaman, he had a police officer ask the titular hero if he needed a glass of water and a patron in a diner saying that Aquaman isn’t allowed to eat fish & chips. Playing on the fact that many people see Aquaman as useless compared to Superman and Wonder Woman gave Johns…more

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the X-Factor semifinals, returning to The Shire in The Hobbit, or the Los Angeles Dodgers signing Ryu when Dhalsim was clearly a better choice, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

In 2011, Geoff Johns reinvented Aquaman by acknowledging the jokes made about the character and showing what a bad-ass he can be. In many ways, it reminded me of his work in Blackest Night; he acknowledged the ridiculousness of having power rings in several different colors and still made the plot work. With Aquaman, he had a police officer ask the titular hero if he needed a glass of water and a patron in a diner saying that Aquaman isn’t allowed to eat fish & chips. Playing on the fact that many people see Aquaman as useless compared to Superman and Wonder Woman gave Johns something to play off of. It helped him make Aquaman shine.

In 2012, Johns took things to the next level with “The Others” storyline. The plot showed Aquaman’s past and the person he used to be…and it wasn’t pretty. Before teaming up with the Justice League and becoming a mainstream hero, Aquaman was relentless and ruthless. He was a harsh man that surrounded himself with harsh allies. The storyline expanded on Johns’ idea that Aquaman is a bad-ass, but also showed how the character has evolved into a hero.

While I’ve been thrilled by several comics in 2012, Aquaman has been consistently great. I highly recommend Geoff Johns’ run on this book. It was easily my favorite comic book of 2012.

Now it’s your turn! What was your favorite comic book of the year?

Hilarious Bane Voiceovers (The Dark Knight Rises)

Here’s a hilarious video featuring scenes from The Dark Knight Rises, but with someone doing voiceovers that add a comical twist to Tom Hardy’s Goldmember voice that he used for Bane. Watch and listen as Bane talks about the fiber content of strawberries, fights Batman using numerous Mortal Kombat references, and shows his freestyle skills. Also marvel at Batman’s…interesting choices for driving music. Continue reading “Hilarious Bane Voiceovers (The Dark Knight Rises)”

Support Nightwing: The Series on Kickstarter

As many of you know, Nightwing is my favorite comic book character. With that in mind, I was thrilled when RPadholic Iceman sent me this Kickstarter link for Nightwing: The Series. Danny Shepherd and Jeremy Le are putting together a three-part mini-series on Batman’s former boy wonder and they’re looking for Kickstarter funding. The pledging prizes are pretty sweet — batarangs, a Nightwing mask, a Red Hood mask, and a full-on Nightwing costume. Check out the pitch video and the teaser trailer below. Continue reading “Support Nightwing: The Series on Kickstarter”