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May 31, 2005
Ultimates Vol. 2: The first six issues
I usually don’t enjoy revamps. No matter how cheesy a comic or movie might have been in the 60s or 70s, it possessed a spirit that today’s creators can’t often match. The original X-Men series by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, and Werner Roth had funky villains like The Mimic and soap opera machinations between Scott Summers and Jean Grey. When Marvel decided to re-imagine this as Ultimate X-Men, the results were mixed. They erased all the lovable qualities of the characters that made them so unforgettable in favor of Jerry Bruckheimer style action. I had written off the Ultimate line of comics for good, and when the updated version of The Avengers appeared, I didn’t buy it until the trade paperback appeared. And I was glad I did, because unlike the other series, this one has heart. Mark Millar spent the time to explore each of the characters before sending them off into action. He updated the series in a way that made sense, by having everyone look at Thor as if he were a nut job and Bruce Banner as a misanthropic nerd. The first trade paperback introduced the Ultimates, while the second put them into action against an updated version of the Skulls.
Now the third arc is complete and you can probably get them all in comic stores today. Pick up Marvel Must Haves with Ultimates V2 1-3, and then get single issues 4-6. Rather than having one story spread among six issues, Millar breaks it up into smaller stories that form a mystery. In the first three issues, someone leaks to the media that the Hulk is really Bruce Banner and the whole massacre of innocent New Yorkers was really the Ultimates’ fault. The Hulk goes on trial and is defended by Matt Murdock. Those old timers in the audience will remember the issue of the 70s Hulk where he got the same defense attorney. Unlike that story, this one concludes as it probably would in the real world, but I don’t understand why the government chooses this particular method of execution. Ultimates V2 4-5 deal with the origins of Thor: is he really a Norse God or is he another super soldier variant? A scientist in Europe, Thor’s brother, claims to have invented the hammer and harness that gives Thor his powers. Thor says that this fellow is really Loki who is bending reality and causing the Ultimates to turn against him. The Ultimates go after Thor and it isn’t your regular superhero slugfest.
Ultimates 6, which just came out last week, had me rolling my eyes when I first heard about the Ultimate Defenders. Marvel can’t ever seem to get the formula right for the regular Defenders, why try it here? But it does work, because Millar goes for comedy. The Ultimate Defenders are a bunch of wannabees with no super-powers: Nighthawk, Son of Satan, Power Man, and Valkyrie. They are basically grown-ups playing dress up, hoping to get corporate sponsorship by inviting Hank Pym to join them. Pym is at his lowest point, having been ostracized from the Ultimates, and he can’t get back in even though he’s created two robots: The Vision and Ultron. The government has taken his Giant-Man formula, improved it and given it to other soldiers. All Pym has left is a new power to shrink and control ants (whenever he can find them). He tries to make a new start with the Defenders, but this is team that has to take a cab to a crime scene. At least he gets a girlfriend out of it with the Valkyrie, but her last request to him will have you laughing hysterically.
Cutting across all the issues is the conspiracy to undermine the Ultimates. Someone on the team is sabotaging their operation. In the first issue of Vol. 2, we see the Ultimates invade Iraq on a rescue mission. We see on the last page of the Defenders issue that this hidden agent is objecting to the misuse of their powers. It’s this threat that carries over into the next six issues, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Nuff said.
May 30, 2005
Forza Motorsport and Fanatec Speedster Forceshock Wheel: Peanut Butter and Jelly!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I was drawn to buying Forza Motorsport, but I wasn’t sure if it was the game for me. I love racing games, but I’ve never been very good at Gran Turismo. I found the gold standard PS2 game way too realistic for my tastes and quickly sold it. I was further in doubt when trying out a demo disc and watched in despair as my car repeatedly slid off the track and crashed into barriers.
However, I did take the plunge and bought Forza, and I have loved every minute of playing it. The graphics on the game are outstanding for the XBox, combining the best of Project Gotham Racing 2 with some of the graphical tricks you’ve seen on Rallisport Challenge 2. The backgrounds are all rendered inside the engine and you can have fun watching the replays, especially scenes in Times Square where you look at the various neon signs. Damage modeling is another graphical feature, and it makes screwing up or losing races more fun. The gameplay is more realistic, like Gran Turismo, but Microsoft gave newbies several ways to enjoy the game. There are several assists built in: Stability Management, Traction Control, Anti-Lock Braking, as well as Automatic transmission. In addition, there is a “suggested driving line” feature that is incredibly helpful: it not only shows you the best driving path on the track, but turns green when you need to step on the gas, yellow when you need to take the foot off the gas pedal, and red when you need to break. This line became my point of entry to this type of game—it’s not about driving like a maniac, it’s about breaking at the right point and accelerating out of a turn.
In comparison to games like Midnight Club 3 and Need For Speed Underground 2, Forza offers a rich set of car customizations and upgrade packages. But unlike these other games, Forza’s has car classes: D (lowest), C, B, A, R, and S. Within each class, you have levels 1-4. You can easily take a D class car and buy various upgrades to turn into a B class vehicle, but you would be missing the point. The races are centered on having the same class of vehicles competing against each other. The point of the game is to take say, a D4 class car, upgrade and tune up to the limit of D1, so you can beat the pants of other D class cars. This is especially important when you go online (more on that later). It’s in this area of car tuning and upgrading that I need the most help: going online and searching various Forza forums for tuning tricks is an option. You can also look into purchasing the Forza : Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)
I’ve played Forza for about 12 hours now and I am nowhere near the end. There aren’t that many tracks compared to other games—and this about the only negative thing I can say about the game. There are several real life race tracks and others in real locations like New York City, where you run laps. Other tracks involve Point to Point races that Microsoft’s designers have created on their own, and these are a lot of fun as well. I’ve spent most of my time in the Career mode, but there are quite a few races in the Arcade mode. IGN reports that there are 70 hours in the Career mode and I have a feeling this figure may be a bit conservative for me.
I started playing Forza with the regular Xbox controller type-S. I was progressing decently enough, but I kept looking at demo booths where people were playing GT4 with the fancy Logitech wheel. I read several reviews of the Fanatec Speedster ForceShock wheel, hemmed and hawed, then finally picked one up at Gamestop. The minute I started using the ForceShock I felt a big difference right away in playing Forza. Yes, this is how the racing games are supposed to be played--they go together like PB&J! It took a few turns to get the hang of the wheel, and then it made a big impact on my races. The ForceShock has an excellent feel; the grip on the wheel is almost like a real car. It rumbles and shakes violently when you crash into walls or slide off into the dirt part of track. It does not have the resistance features that other gamers say that the Logitech wheel does on the PS2, but it’s pretty damn good. After analyzing the reviews of the cheaper Xbox wheels, I concluded that very few of them were good, save for the MadCatz MC2 wheel, but that one model specifically made for the Xbox is hard to find now. Several gamers reported that they beat their best times immediately after using the ForceShock wheel and I would have to agree. It’s made a big impact on my experience with Forza and I highly recommend it. I’m not sure it’s great with every racing game: I’ve tried it with Midnight Club 3 and Need For Speed Underground 2 with mixed results. The ForceShock has programmable modes that you can adjust for any game, so I will be playing around with these. Possibly the only downside to buying the ForceShock is the imminent arrival of the Xbox 360: we don’t know if this wheel will work on that platform. I’ve decided I will get another year out of my Xbox with the various games coming out and that’s fine for now.
I’ve only played about a dozen times on Xbox live, but it’s a blast. Like Project Gotham Racing 2, Forza is seamlessly integrated into Xbox Live from the moment it starts—a trend I’d like most other titles to adopt. You can view your rankings as soon as you finish a race, download ghosts or car setups, etc. For Multiplayer matches, I started off in Class D, thinking that my recent experiences would help me smoke everybody. Man, was I ever wrong! I found my Audi TT getting creamed by several Honda CRX-SI cars. Later I found nearly every gamer was choosing the CRX-SI as their Class D car. There are various places online where you can figure how to tune a CRX to make it so fast and it’s become common knowledge. I made up for losing in later matches with Class B, A, and S cars where I managed to pick the right one and negotiate around tracks to win a few races.
In case you can’t tell, I’m utterly fascinated with Forza on almost every level. It’s a great achievement on the Xbox. I’m just a bit disappointed in the low amount of tracks. It’s a shame that Microsoft won’t make any more games for the Xbox 1, I think they could squeeze even more performance out of it. In any event, when Forza 2 comes out for the 360, I am sure I will have to get it. I am hooked!
May 26, 2005
Alex Ross Justice #1 Preview
Cowabunga! Check out this preview of Justice #1 over at Wizard. Looks fantastic as you can see. Ross painting over Krueger's pencils does really look like Ross had laid out the page for himself. And unlike those treasury editions, we will see Ross drawing the JLA fighting super-villains, although we only see them trying to fight some kind of super-natural fire here.
I'd love to see Ross do a Legion of Super-Heroes special one day. Wouldn't it be cool, especially if he used those kinky uniforms from the 70s? He did a wall poster like that and I was in hog heaven.
Posted by Kid Flash at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)May 25, 2005
Steve Englehart's Coyote comes out of the wilderness
Steve Englehart's Coyote series, one of the first independent, creator-owned titles to make a big splash in the 80s, is getting collected by Image Comics. I remember this series quite well. It was first published in Eclipse magazine, and for the time, it was very daring material. Marshall Rogers did an excellent job with very detailed artwork, and Steve's script tred that line between New Age hero and action scenes that kept the story moving. I also remember Marshall drawing a naked woman that Coyote had a relationship with (who had been trying to kill him a few pages earlier)--like I said, for those times, very graphic.
After this initial origin tale was finished, Archie Goodwin had the good sense to bring Coyote to EPIC Comics as a launch title. I remember buying this and DREADSTAR and being very excited about both. Steve Leialoha, one of the most talented and unsung artists of this period, drew the first two issues of Coyote and did a superb job. I was disappointed when I heard that the artist was leaving and went to WonderCon. I asked him why and Leialoha replied in his usual terse manner, "That's showbiz." We got a treat with issue #3 as Butch Guice made a splash drawing this story, but he too left for greener pastures. Then Englehart was paired with a young artist named Chas Troug, which for me, killed the series. It was either Troug's style or his inexperience--it just didn't mesh with the stories that Englehart was writing. (Troug would blossom into a very capable artist later on, as evidenced by his ANIMAL MAN tenure with Grant Morrison.)
For now, I'll be glad to get this collection and also get the SCORPIO ROSE mini-series (also by Rogers) that it ties into. BTW, I found another interesting Englehart interview over here that you may want to read. Nuff said.
Geoff Johns is cleanin' up the DC Universe!
Quick quiz for you fellers: what do China, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, and the DC Universe have in common? As any coon in the wilderness knows, they were all taken over by communists. Now in the DC Universe it happened in 1985 when one Mr. Marv Wolfman (a pretty suspicious name I think) wrote Crisis on the Infinite Earths. He even brainwashed an otherwise good feller, George Perez into drawing it. Wholesale slaughter occurred: almost every good feller on Earth 2 perished. And a good girl perished, too, the Huntress. Man, her outfit was tight and knockers were big. The current Huntress can’t hold a candle, even with 500 situps a day, I still think she needs more enhancements. But I digress when onery women folk come to mind…
Now we have one feller rightin’ the wrongs and settin’ things back on track: Mr. Geoff Johns! First he helped bring back Hawkman, and he made sure that Katar or Kotor or Cotor is a Republican, and that’s all right with me. He had Flash rebuild Keystone City with all-American steel in a matter of minutes. Then he brought back Hourman, got him out of that Limbo commie trap of Per Degaton where they probably have to watch re-runs of thirtysomething. And now we have Mr. Hal Jordan, the true blue ace-hardware man of test pilots, back as Green Lantern! He kicked that red-ass tail of Sinestro, who I knew for twenty years was always behind Jordan blowin’ up Los Angeles. (Although, if an American city had to blown up, wouldn’t you want it to be Ell-Lay?)
There’s one evil Democrat left in the whole DC Universe: Maxwell Lord! Now you may think this Lord feller ain’t so bad. But let me ask you, doesn’t he want to control the DC Universe through a big, centralized computer called OMAC? If that ain’t like the Democrats wantin’ more say in our lives, then I’ll be runnin’ out on the highway and askin’ my best bud Joe Bob to run me over with my own semi-truck!
I’d better run out to my local 7-Eleven and get all the latest DC tie-ins. For now, ten-four good buddies, and don’t forget to rotate your tires every 5000 miles!
Posted by Cousin Dick at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)Shocker: Developers don't push console hardware!
This title is somewhat of a joke. Look at Gran Turismo 4 and then look at almost any other PS2 game, you'll see the difference. One set of game developers chose to fully utilize the hardware and others did not. Ditto for XBox: look at Doom3, Forza, Halo 2, then look at most third party ports, they suck. Now reading John Davison's blog at 1up.com, I see that Alex Ward from Criterion (Burnout series) confirms this to Davison: "You'll never, ever see what the Xbox is really capable of," he confessed. "No-one's anywhere near tapping into the power of the thing, and it's being replaced already. We're pushing the PS2 at about 60% with our stuff, and I bet we're not close to that with Xbox." Davison himself noticed this when looking at a 360 title and seeing that it's not much different than the forthcoming Burnout Revenge. Yep, you're gonna have to pay big bucks for a 360 because game companies don't want to spend the time pushing the current hardware. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)May 24, 2005
Nerdy News for Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Rich Johnston's back from maternity leave with a whopper of a story concerning Alan Moore. Moore's pissed about DC\Warner representing him as over-enthusiastic about the upcoming V FOR VENDETTA movie, so pissed that he's pulling League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3 away from DC and into the publishing hands of Top Shelf. Johnston also reports that the "Wolverine: Enemy of the State" hardcover has a page that is missing dialogue captions. Millar's comment on his message board: "I like to see these Marvel misprints as a big fuck you to all the lazy bastards who wait for the trade." Yeah, right, I'm still waiting for your over-priced WANTED trade, sucker.
Speaking of collections, here's a list of the trades coming from Mighty Marvel later this year. Now I hate what Bendis is doing to the Avengers, and I've sworn not to buy the single issues; trades are a different story. I will order NEW AVENGERS VOLUME 2: SENTRY HC because of this teaser: "For an entire year, all of comicdom has been asking: Who is the mystery Avenger: Well, Ronin is here and just in time as one of the powerful villains from the Breakout has already set up show and needs to be taken down before any more damage can be done. Who is Ronin? Here's a hint: He's not Daredevil." And just because I'm feeling generous towards Bendis today, here's a spoiler from Wizard magazine. Apparently after the House of M concludes, one of these shocking things will happen in the Marvel Universe:
- Daredevil identity becomes secret again.
- Peter Parker is no longer married to Mary Jane.
- Wanda becomes Sorceress Supreme.
- Thor will save the day and return to the Marvel Universe.
- The Ultimate Universe and 616 (Marvel Universe proper) will merge.
- Mutant population will drop to 300 mutants.
I can see the Daredevil or Thor thing happening quite easily, just like an episode of Star Trek, things get reset back to their original state so no real change happens. An Ultimate\616 merge would be too radical, although a Peter Parker split with MJ would be something most writers would relish.
We have to return back to DC for our final note about an interview with Gail Simone about Action, Birds of Prey, and Villains United. Nuff said.
Posted by Kid Flash at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)May 23, 2005
Nerdy News for Monday, May 23, 2005
Brian Bendis is pulling out the stops to get me to buy New Avengers. Steve McNiven, David Finch, the super-babelicious Spider-Woman (I never realized how great that costume was until Finch drew it), the return of the Sentry, and now Neal Adams doing this special variant cover to New Avengers #7 (click to expand). Pretty great, reminds me of Sauron falling off that cliff in Adams' X-Men run. Though I try not to speak of Bendis, I must point you to this interview concerning his involvement in the Ultimate Spider-Man videogame, which looks tremendous.
Moving on to DC, there's a great interview with Jeff Loeb on his final Superman\Batman arc where he's out for blood: the World's Finest take on "The Maximums", a thinly veiled swipe at the Ultimates. Ed McGuiness returns to draw this arc and it looks to be a whopper. Leob reveals something about the first Pulse arc that I never realized: the Green Goblin murdered reporter Teri Kidder in issue #2: Teri Hatcher combined with Margot Kidder, get it? There's Bendis again, he just pops up everywhere. Loeb is fed up with Marvel taking pot shots and now it's his turn. Then there's a great interview with DC's head honcho, where he talks about Infinite Crisis, Grant Morrison, and the All-Star line. If you're getting excited about this like I am, check out the latest Batman and Superman issues, they are all tied into the ongoing continuity. And if you want to see Batman confront his super-buddies over getting mind raped, creating OMAC, and uncovering the truth about Blue Beetle, check out this schweet 10 page preview of OMAC #2.
More evidence that Lucas is not going to the Light Side and stopping with Episode 3: Australian actor Matthew Newton might be part of the new Star Wars TV show.
Finally, play the funeral march music, because The Flash just lost one of his greatest writers: Geoff Johns has announced he is leaving the book. Sob! And if you cross-check Didio's interview that I mentioned above, you will see there is little chance that Johns will do an All-Star Flash book. But we can console ourselves with the knowledge that Darwyn Cooke will write an arc of the Flash after Johns' exit. Nuff said, I'm too verklempt.
May 22, 2005
Best Collections of 2004
Now that we are almost halfway into 2005, I thought it was appropriate to look back at 2004’s notable graphic collections featuring super-heroes and super-teams. There were many memorable tales, and if you’re just getting back into comics, they’re all nicely collected and ready to read. Nearly all of them were involved in re-interpreting classic super-hero myths.
Fantastic Four, Vol. 2
Formerly Known as the Justice League
The Ultimates Vol. 2: Homeland Security
Supreme Power, Vol. 1
Sleeper Vol. 2: All False Moves
Superman: Red Son
Superman: Secret Identity
DC: The New Frontier, Vol. 2
May 21, 2005
E3 2005: Most Wanted Games for this year
The tsunami of E3 2005 is finally over. What a week, with Sith and E3, it’s hard to keep up with everything. I’ve already written about the hardware wars, but it all comes down to the games. Looking at the games scheduled for the rest of 2005 (which means no PS3 games at all), here’s what most excites me from the preview coverage.
Xbox 360
Project Gotham Racing 3: I loved PGR2. It had the perfect set of Xbox live integration which has become the standard for all other XBL titles. They’ve only released one movie for this third iteration but it looks shweet.
Tiger Woods PGA 2006: I’m a Tiger addict; I’ve bought it every year for the past four years. The screenshots on the 360 version make the grass look real and they say there are several different kinds modelled. I read on IGN that they will only have six courses which is a bummer, because the current gen Tiger has many more.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted: Another sequel, but it combines the best of the Underground features (customization) with classic NFS modes (cops and hot pursuit).
Gears of War: Unreal guru CliffyB’s newest game looks pretty cool. I am not too sure about this new “second-person” viewpoint that combines first-person and third-person views. I just received my copy of Game Informer and it has a great article on this game.
Quake 4: The movie at E3 looked fantastic. ID is cranking this one up with awesome single and multiplayer features on a DOOM 3 engine for the 360.
Perfect Dark Zero: Can only go by the video shown on the MTV special but it looked like a cool shooter. Microsoft did show it behind closed doors at E3.
Top Spin 2: Everyone loved this on the old Xbox, now it’s back and with a Tiger-like calendar mode for playing events and unlocking items.
XBox:
Burnout: Revenge: It looks like Criterion found a way to tweak this and make the fourth iteration worth your while. Jumps, crashbreakers during takedown races, and new ambient lighting. Of course, will you still want it if you have Xbox 360? We could say the same about all Xbox 1 titles.
Star Wars Battlefront 2: I wasn’t happy with the first game, it looked rushed to market for the DVD release date. The sequel has tons of single player content and space battles. I’ve seen videos where you can jump into an X-Wing and fight alongside Star Destroyers or lead landing parties on the Death Star. God, I miss X-Wing vs. Tie-fighter.
Black: This is from the makers of Burnout and it promises to do for first-person shooters what the former game did for car racing. Pure adrenaline speed shooting. There’s only a few screenshots and no videos, but I’ve gulped down the cool aid on this one.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Last year’s Spider-Man 2 had the awesome scaled down version of New York city. This title takes that same city model and combines it with a more cartoony Spider-Man that resembles the MTV series a few years ago. Bendis helped developed the story and you get to play as Venom, too.
Far Cry Instincts: The great shooter from the PC comes to Xbox and from the screenshots it seems like they have a done a great job with the graphics engine. It has new modes and features not found on the PC.
Sony Playstation Portable
Burnout Legends: This takes the best tracks of Burnout 1-3 and combines it with the Burnout 3 gameplay innovations like takedown and Road Rage. Damn, my little PSP is hungry for this one.
Biggest No-Shows of E3 2005:
For the PSP: Madden 2006 and Gran Turismo. It looks like Gran Turismo won’t come out this year on the PSP.
Biggest Innovation of E3 2005:
Wireless controllers are now standard along with HD TV support.
Best Babe of E3 2005:
IGN Insider has three videos of the booth babes from the show floor. After a while, all the silicone begins to look the same. My favorite babe is still XPlay’s Morgan Webb, especially after seeing this video interview she did with Mike Capp on Unreal Tournament 2007. When Morgan says, “I gotta have my flak cannon”, you know this chick is for real and she does play games. Viva La Webb, baby!
