Some video game news, plus a random scan!

Hey X-Maniacs, I figured I'd take a little breather from my schoolwork to throw a quick update out. I was initially just going to do a quick scan and leave it at that, but some pretty awesome comic book video game news came out today, so I figure I should touch on that. First off is the official announcement of Marvel vs Capcom 3... As somebody who had sunk COUNTLESS hours into Marvel vs Capcom 2 for the PS2, I've got to say that this is spectacular news! I'd still prefer if it was an all Marvel game(sorry, but I'd rather play as 50+ Marvel characters then with a bunch of Capcom characters that I had never heard about)but so long as this game is HALF as good as its predecessor, it'll definitely be a must buy for me.

Speaking of must buys, it was announced today that Talia Al Ghul and Mr. Freeze have been confirmed for Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. Freeze I can take or leave, but I'm pretty excited about Talia's inclusion, especially if it means that Ra's Al Ghul will also be appearing. Of course I am a bit nervous that Talia's inclusion could possibly lead to a Damian appearance, but I don't think DC would do that to me... Or at least they better not!

OK, video game news done, here's a random Impulse scan:From Impulse #61(June 2000).

How do you say, "No new reviews" in spanish?

Since I've spent my entire weekend playing "Batman: Arkham Asylum", I never got around to doing my Spanish homework... Whoops! What that means is that I won't be reading/posting about Daredevil #500 as I had been planning. I should have some kind of review for DD #500 up by late tomorrow night... Probably!

Besides that, as I said, I've been spending almost all of my free time playing "Arkham", which I can proudly admit to beating today! Yay! Big time props to story writer Paul Dini, he really did a fantastic job with the writing for this game. The story was awesome from start to finish, with the slight twist at the end highly enjoyable(I also loved the scene after the credits!). I enjoyed the story so much that I'm going to start collecting Paul's DC work("Streets of Gotham" and "Gotham City Sirens"). I beat the game on normal difficulty, and I have to say, that game kicked my ass at times! I can't wait to try it on hard. Towards the end of the game, before the final battle, Batman has to fight off 16(!)Blackgate prisoners in a very narrow hallway. Finally defeating those goons was quite the satisfying experience. After beating the game, you can go back and try to solve the 240(!!!)riddles the Riddler has hidden throughout Arkham. I've managed to find 239(!!!!!)of those damnable riddles, but for the life of me I couldn't find the last one. After school tomorrow I'll fire the game up again and continue my hunt for that final riddle.

Let's see, on the comic book front, I finished up the first part of "Invasion" last night and found myself enjoying the early portion of that storyline. It sucks to be Australia in that mini though, as the massive alien Invasion fleet chose the land down under as the beachhead for their invasion force. So far so good though. If I have some time after finishing my Spanish homework, I'll probably begin the second part of Invasion. Well, that's going to have to be it for tonight, if I don't get started on that homework now, I'm never going to get any sleep! Remember to check out the picture site(here)as I'll be posting something over there. Now, on to Spanish!

Post #908! Plus as a bonus, a rant about the "death" of Barry Allen!

This is my 908th post here on this blog! What's so significant about the 908th post you ask? Absolutely nothing! I was just too lazy to give this post a proper title, so that's that. Now that we explained how the title of this post came to be, we should probably find something comic related to talk about... Weird, I sounded like Venom in that last line... That would be the Eddie Brock Venom, not the annoying Mac Gargan Venom! I miss Eddie.

Hmm, where was I? Oh, that's right, looking for something comic related to post. Well, I think the "Batman: Arkham Asylum" video game is as good a place to start as any. Have I mentioned that I love that game? Yes, I have. Have I mentioned that Arkham Asylum is the best comic book based video game EVER? Yep, I believe I mentioned that little fact last night. Well, what's left to say about that game then? PLENTY! I'm going to guess that some of you guys are probably sick and tired of reading about how much I love that game, but I can't help it! See, I'm more of a video game person than a movie person. I can't tell you what the last movie I watched was(really, I can't!), but I can tell you exactly what game I was playing two weeks ago(Civilization: Revolution). You know how people gush about "The Dark Knight" or "Iron Man" movies? "Batman: Arkham Asylum" is my "Dark Knight". It's that good. And just so everybody knows, I'm ranked 8,758th overall in the first challenge mission. Is that as bad as it sounds? Yes, yes it is.

Now, let's get into comic books! I finished reading Crisis on Infinite Earths last week, and it was as confusing as I'd been warned it would be. First of all, 12 parts is WAY too long for a mini-series! 6 issues is perfect for a mini-series. 8 issues is pushing it, but I can deal with that. However, a 12 issue mini-series is crazy. 12 issues for a crossover is fine but not for a monthly mini-series. I will say that the parts of the story that I could understand were actually pretty enjoyable. The first 3 issues and the last were my favorites. I definitely could have done without most of the junk in the middle. I mean did we really need a Lex Luthor & Brainiac vs. Psimon mini-story in the middle of things? George Perez's artwork was marvelous(as usual). I will say that I liked the original depiction of the Anti-Monitor a lot more than his later appearance. The purple cape he wore with the original armor was money!

Before I stop talking about Crisis, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "death" of Barry Allen(Flash). The way Barry's death was handled here was awful! I was expecting Barry to go out with a bang, instead he barely went out with a fizzle. Barry sacrifices his life to destroy the Anti-Monitor's cannon(or something equally nefarious). So, Barry dies and the Anti-Monitor is really pissed about his cannon being destroyed. However, the destruction of that cannon really didn't accomplish anything! The Anti-Monitor simply re-powers himself by destroying a bunch of worlds and continues his reign of terror. On top of Barry's sacrifice being nearly meaningless, his death was hardly touched on. Barry dies in issue #7(I think)and nobody even realizes he was dead until issue #12! Sure, Wally West would occasionally wonder what had happened to his mentor, but all of Barry's so-called teammates and friends seemingly could care less. When the heroes learn of Barry's death only Wally shows some emotion, and even he wasn't as upset as I figured he would be. Superman's reaction to Barry's death kind of sums it all up best. Wally is cradling Barry's tattered Flash costume and Superman quizzically asks, "That's Barry's uniform, isn't it?", and that's all. We don't get a, "Oh no, Barry's dead!" or even a, "Poor Barry Allen. He'll be missed.". No, we get Superman stupidly asking a question he already knows the answer to! Pathetic! Poor Barry, no wonder he came back to life in such a bad mood...

With Crisis finally finished, I've moved on to DC's "Invasion" storyline from the 1980's. This mini is a more reasonable 3 issues, with each comic 80 pages long. I've always been a sucker for comic book aliens, so I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll enjoy this storyline. After that, I might read the "Kingdom" mini-series, even though I've been wanting to read "Justice" and "DC: The New Frontier" for a long time now. Then again, I might just start reading Robin, Green Arrow or Green Lantern, all of which I have very long runs to get through... Well, I know I'll be reading something, I just don't know what!

As for new comics, next up is Daredevil #500, which I'm really looking forward to reading. After that, things start to get a bit iffy. I've had Ultimate Avengers #001 and X-Men: Legacy #227 laying around unread for a while now, but I just haven't really wanted to give either book a read. I've also got some "War of Kings" x-over stuff to read through(Ascension and Warriors). Since the main "War" mini-series ended a few weeks ago, I should probably polish off those secondary books. Hmm, I think I've rambled long enough for one night. Trust me, post #909 is going to be a lot better than post #908! I promise!

Well, now I'm tired!

I just put the finishing touches on my humongous 100th post over at the picture blog(which you can conveniently check out here). Between scanning, cropping, cutting and pasting, it took me nearly 2 hours to get that post up! However, I'm really happy with the way it came out, and I think(hope)it will please my fellow Legion of Losers!

I've got a couple of comic reviews I need to post(REBELS #7 and X-Factor #47 to name two), but that's going to have to wait until I've got some spare time tomorrow. Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention that Batman: Arkham Asylum is probably the greatest comic book based video games I've EVER played. Hell, it's one of the best, most fun games I've played in a good long time! Between the gameplay, the acting and the story, I'm in Bat-heaven every time I fire that game up. Well, that's going to have to be it for tonight, remember to check out the picture site, and if you want to comment on something(anything!)be my guest! Thanks for reading.

Batman: Arkham Asylum!

My copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum arrived today, which is actually a day earlier then I expected, not that I'm complaining! I was only able to play for about 15 minutes, which mainly consisted of the opening(and awesome)cutscene which detailed Batman bringing Joker into Arkham Asylum and Joker subsequently escaping, trapping Batman in the Asylum, leaving the hero surrounded by all of his worst enemies.

Right off the bat let me emphatically state that the voice acting is GREAT! Kevin Conroy(Batman), Mark Hamill(Joker), and Arleen Sorkin(Harley Quinn)all reprise their roles from the old "Batman: The Animated Series" cartoon, which is just so cool. Mark Hamill's Joker is especially well done, his lines and delivery had me laughing out loud at times! Paul Dini co-writes the story, which helps give the game an authentic, Batman feel to it.

Since I own a Playstation 3, I also get the added benefit of getting to play as the Clown Prince of Crime himself(Ha, take that X-Box fanboys!), but I probably won't play as the Joker until after I've defeated the game as Batman. I doubt I'll be able to get much game time in tomorrow(damn school!), but Friday is my lightest day schoolwise, so I should be glued to my controller for all of Friday afternoon as well as most of the weekend! I'll end this by posting a scan from the mini-comic that came bundled with the game. The mini-comic pretty much gives the story of everything that led up to Joker's masterplan in Arkham.

The little post that couldn't!

This post was going to be a review for Batman #689(which I read last night)but I had a surprisingly large load of homework to deal with, which pretty much put the kibosh on posting ANY reviews tonight. Jeez, you'd think with this only being the second day of school things would start off a bit calmer, apparently not though! One thing I've learned since going back to school is that doing the scheduled homework is THE easiest way to earn an "A" grade. So sorry, but homework is always going to trump any new blog posting. Tomorrow should be way easier since Thursday and Friday are my lightest school days, so the plan is to get a review of Batman #689 up tomorrow as well as possibly Mighty Avengers #28 unless a better comic arrives in the mail. Oh before I check out tonight, Batman: Arkham Asylum shipped late last night from Amazon(which is where I pre-ordered it from). Amazon usually ships new games out of Philadelphia, which means I expect Arkham to arrive at the earliest Thursday, and no later than Friday. That right there should tell everybody exactly how I intend on spending my weekend! Before I go, I'll be posting over at the picture blog, so if you want, go ahead and check that site out.

Only two more days!

I'm practically counting the hours until Batman: Arkham Asylum is released. Tuesday can't come soon enough! The reviews that have been coming in for this game have been very high, much higher than I actually expected. Usually comic book based video games(especially DC ones)haven't really been all that great, Marvel Ultimate Alliance was the last really good CB video game I've played. Anyway, here's a link to various video game related review sites in case you're interested in seeing what the "professionals" are saying about the Dark Knight latest foray into the world of video games.Needless to say, I've already pre-ordered a copy!