Friday, August 7, 2009

Random thoughts for a Friday night.

Since I've got no new comics to review this post is going to be one of my (in)famous random babbling posts. I'll start with some video game news. Don't worry, it's comic related! I downloaded the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum today, and let me tell you, that game is frigging AWESOME! The demo only lasts about 20 minutes to a half an hour, but I was blown away by the gameplay. Basically the story is that the Joker allows Batman to capture him and Bats transports Joker to the Asylum. Unbeknownst to Bats though, Harley Quinn has taken over the security in the Asylum and once the Joker arrives, he escapes custody and runs amok, along with a who's who of Batman's Rogues. Joker then has the Asylum locked down, leaving Batman trapped with dozens of maniacs. Playing as Batman was a blast. In basic hand-to-hand situations, Bats kicks some major ass. It was easy to batter any inmate dumb enough to confront Bats, and it was also extremely easy(and fun!)to counterattack the various cannon fodder Joker sends after Bats. The game isn't a straight forward beat-em up though, Bats greatest weapon is his stealth attacks and his cool equipment. Batman's cowl can help him see through walls and spot an enemy with infrared technology. Plus you have access to Batman's batarangs and grappling guns. The game really shines when Bats begins to use stealth tactics against his enemies. Bats can sneak up behind gun toting foes and choke them into unconsciousness. It's hilarious knocking some goon out and then hiding and watching as his companions find his body and begin to panic. Usually I'll play a demo once and that's it, but I get the feeling I'll be playing this demo all weekend long. I might even pre-order this game to make sure I get my copy once it drops on August 25!

With that out of the way I can concentrate on comic books. Tomorrow I expect my CB order to arrive in the mail, which means I should have some new reviews up over the next few days. I managed to finish up reading the back issues of the "JSA" comic that ran prior to the current series. For the most part that series was really good. Some favorite storylines would have to include Black Adam conquering his home country of Kahndaq with the help of several allies including Northwind and Atom Smasher. The storyline with Degaton was also enjoyable. The series ended on a bit of a sour note, but all in all, this series was chock full of Geoff Johns written goodness.

Now I have to choose another series to begin. I have practically the full run of Robin, a slew of Green Arrow comics, several Green Lantern books, plus tons of smaller runs. For example, I have the first 11 issues of the Outsiders comics from the 90's, several trades including Green Lantern/Green Arrow vol. 2, Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, Batman: The Ring, The Arrow and the Bat, the first 4 trades of Superman/Batman, Batman War Crimes, The Dark Knight Strikes Back, Batman/Ra's Al Ghul Year One, and the OMAC Project, and that's just one of the piles of DC books I have. I have a few more piles of DC stuff, along with a few piles of older Marvel books! I intend on reading the Wanted trade tonight, and hopefully posting some quick thoughts on it come tomorrow. After that, I'm not sure what I'll read next. Well, I think that's enough aimless blogging for tonight. I'll check out the other blogs I follow to see who has some new posts up, and then it's time to dig into Wanted.

3 comments:

  1. You've got quite a backlog of comics there, X-Man.

    Refresh my memory, have you ever read the Aquaman run by Peter David? That's another one of those classic 90's books that goes along with Robin, Starman and GL in terms of readability. Say what you want about Kyle Rayner's original appearances, I think Ron Marz did some good work. All those books had runs by writers who did years worth of stories.

    Can you play as anyone else in that Arkham game?

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  2. Hey X-Man, have you ever read John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's 62-issue run on "The Spectre"?

    I've heard a lot of great things about it, but I only have a few issues from the series. And, naturally, DC still hasn't released the entire run in trade format.

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  3. Thanks for the suggestions guys! You know Kello, I've always wanted to get that Aquaman series. Peter David is one of my all-time favorites, but I just haven't gotten that series yet. I think after I'm finished responding I'll go check out eBay to see if anybody is selling a full run on that series. The Green Lantern comics I've managed to aquire(but not read yet!)pretty much consist of the entire Kyle Rayner run. And yes, you get to play as the Joker in Arkham, which I'm sure is going to be sweet. Plus the game developers were smart enough to get Mark Hamill to do the voice acting for the Joker, which is great. I think you may also get to play as a few other inmates, which I really hope is true. How cool would it be to get to run around as Bane breaking guards backs?

    Actually Robert, that's the first time I heard about that Spectre comic. I know John Ostrander did a few issues of "X-Man" which I enjoyed before Terry Kavanagh took over and destroyed that series. When I check out eBay, I'll give those books a look too. I love eBay, it's an awesome place to find cheap full runs on books.

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