I hadn't heard of EA's forthcoming Dead Space game until I saw a preview on Spike TV's GameTrailers program.  I was blown away by what I saw, kind of like the moment I first became aware of COD4.  The graphics are awesome, and it looks like a really eerie outer-space survival horror game.  Beyond the action there are some neat zero-gravity puzzles.

Here's one of their latest videos of in-game footage.  I can't get over how great the lighting effects look in various scenes...it's like DOOM3 taken to the next level.

And here's a video of the Image comic by Antony Johnston and Ben Templesmith:

Nuff said.

Hulk: Raging Thunder features a really cool story by Jeff Parker, featuring my favorite Femizon, Thundra!  As you can see in the backup story, Thundra first appeared in Fantastic Four #133, coming from an alternate dimension (where women ruled the world) to challenge Ben Grimm in super-powered battle of the sexes.  In this new story, Thundra challenges the Hulk, but it's not what you expect at all!

Parker actually takes the silly events of the past Thundra stories and makes something a little deeper out of them!  Thundra is making trips into Marvel Earth and filming her battles against super-powered males to appease the United Sisterhood.  As Thundra's assistant says:  "These encounters boost morale all the way to the borderlands.  They do not need to know the real purpose."  Thundra's past encounters with the Thing, which developed into a friendship, were kept hidden from her subjects.  The videos taken with her recorder are edited into a propaganda type of film that makes Thundra look like the victor, no matter what transpires.

Thundra trades some good blows with the Hulk.  But it really is not a fight that Thundra can hope to win, she has an ulterior motive.  I can't spoil the ending (let us say it has something in common with Skaar), but I was genuinely surprised.  If you're a Thundra fan, pick up this book.  Jeff Parker rocks!  Nuff said.

Link: Jeff Parker Inteview on Wizard World about Thundra.

Link: Jeff Parker's website.

There's a nice pictorial walk down memory lane on Giant-Size Marvel Comics.  The three titanic Hulk and Thing team-ups produced by Jim Starlin and others!  Nuff said.

Link: Jim Starlin's Hulk and Thing, Funnier than Lewis and Martin!

The Golden Age Flash gets some deserved attention in Brave and Bold #13 when he teams up with Batman.  Jay Garrick is one of the few people who can put Bruce Wayne in his place, which he does several times in this story.  I love this panel with Garrick running alongside the Batboat, after rejecting Batman's offer for a ride: "No thanks, I'll provide my own transportation!"  Jerry Ordway's art is really nice in this issue, and I will envy the collector who gets to buy this particular page.  Garrick talks to Wayne about being a mentor to several DC heroes and asks him if he would ever let Dick or Tim take over as Batman.  The answer is a cold NO.  But certain signs are pointing to the Batman RIP storyline, that Bruce Wayne might stop being Batman for a while and let one of his sidekicks take over.

Mark Waid was recently interviewed on Word Balloon about a number of topics, one of them being his Brave and Bold run.  He was pleased with how it turned out, but their attempts to plugin popular guest stars misfired.  Waid thought the new Blue Beetle in issue #2 would be a big draw, and his final issue features Superman and Catwoman--who just had her own series canceled!  With this series, his recent Flash run, and his Legion of Super-Heroes team that looks to be pushed aside for the Levitz-Giffen era, Waid is the Peter Parker of the DC Universe.  But you just can't help but love the guy for trying his best.  Nuff said.

Link: Mark Waid Word Balloon Interview (May 2008).

It takes a lot to surprise me in a comic-book, TV show, or movie.  Usually I see the twists or surprises coming from a mile away.  I do get shocked by Robert Kirkman in the Walking Dead quite a bit, especially with that scene involving Rick losing his you-know-what to the Governor.

In Kick-Ass #3, Mark Millar blew me away in a similar manner.   It has one of the most violent scenes I’ve read in a comic book.  Certainly the most violent from anything Marvel has published (even remotely published, as this is an ICON title).  I never thought I’d see John Romita Jr. draw anything that bloody!

I’m not going to spoil it here, but Dave (our wannabe Kick-Ass hero) gets in over his head again.  He gets a little assistance.  But as shocking as that scene was, I am wondering now if this breaks the “reality” of Kick-Ass.  Dave is depicted as a realistic kid.  This other character…seems too good to be true.

And how does Katie play into the story?  Look at the color of Katie’s eyes and remember them.  Nuff said.

It's all because of this single issue, Anthro #6 (published in 1969), which introduced a generation of geeks to the pleasures of a catfight.

This cover has everything a man or a boy (in my case back in 1969) craves to see.  Two women fighting over him.  One is a blond, the other is a brunette, the classic Betty vs Veronica dynamic exploding into physical violence.  Hair-pulling, legs tangling...even in my pre-pubescent state, something stirred in my loins.  Anthro's smirk as he watches these women fight to mate with him is just the cherry on top of the cake. 

The plot is pretty simple: through a comedy of errors, Anthro is somehow pledged to marry two pre-historic women, Embra and Nima.  There is an Archie-like quality here, as Embra is depicted as blonde-wholesome, while Nima is brunette-wicked.  The elders who interpret the law declare "...the females in challenge must fight with their bare hands till one fails to rise!  She, who stands, shall be the bride of Anthro!"

It's a nasty catfight.  As you can see, the evil-brunette Nima fights really dirty.  Wally Wood inked this issue, and you can see influence on the pencils.  I wonder if Wood also influenced the storyline?  He's the man who gave us Power Girl, after all!

The fight comes down to a draw when both women fall off a cliff and lose consciousness.  Fortunately, when the Elders were drafting the laws of Cro-Magnon society, they spent time thinking about female catfights and their possible outcomes.  The law states that in the case of a draw, Anthro must marry both bitches!  Oh yes! 

My imagine ran overtime about what we would see in Anthro #7.  Would the splash page feature Anthro waking up in his cave, with both Embra and Nima under bear-skin blankets?  Sadly, it was not meant to be...Anthro #6 was the last issue.  Anthro's Wikipedia entry states that "Embra lives to bear his child" but I don't know where that happened in DC history.

This scene probably was inspired by the classic B-movie One Million Years B.C. that came out a few years earlier in 1966.  You've probably seen the classic poster which featured Raquel Welch in a loincloth.  There was a scene where she fought another cavegirl played by Martine Beswick (who had another classic catfight in From Russia With Love). 

Women are no doubt disgusted by this, but here it is, our dirty little secret revealed, why DC Comics fanboys love Anthro.  Nuff said.

Grant Morrison told us that Final Crisis would begin with the first boy on Earth (Anthro) and end with the last boy on Earth (Kamandi).  I was thrilled and surprised to see Anthro and Kamandi actually meeting in the future, against that iconic Planet of the Apes inspired backdrop of the Statue of Liberty sinking into the ocean.  Judging from reader reaction, only the hardcore DC old-timers know anything about these characters.

For me, this was the most exciting moment of Final Crisis 1.

Everything else was all setup.

I could see it coming that the Seven Soldiers versions of the New Gods were brought about by the Death of the New Gods and Countdown.  I also knew that Jonn J'onzz, Martian Manhunter, would be the hero getting killed.  The solicitations gave this away, even if you didn't see it coming in Salvation Run.  The death scene lacks any kind of drama or fanfare as Jonn goes out with a whimper.  There's going to be a Requiem special, but does anyone doubt that Jonn  J'onzz will be back one day?

Death has no meaning in the DC Universe.  Say that five times as you read this article where Geoff Johns confirms that Barry Allen is returning.

Compared to other big universe-spanning event books, Final Crisis 1 feels like a detective story in comparison.  The Guardians and Green Lantern Corps are investigating the New Gods situation and putting New Earth on lockdown.  The Monitors are punishing Uotan for the loss of Earth-51 (destroyed in Countdown) by banishing him to live as a mortal man.  Is that who we see on the last page?  And the Monitors talk about preserving the Orrery of Worlds...which I assume is the model of the DC Multiverse.

It's an intriguing first issue and I'm interested to see where the story goes from here.  But I can't imagine this expanding DC's fanbase, not in the way that Secret Invasion or 1985 can reach out to casual Marvel readers.  Nuff said.

I'm trying to experiment with a new way of doing a comics-oriented blog.  My latest experiment is a new blog called Giant-Size Marvel.

This new blog will be devoid of my various pseudonyms.  It will (obviously from the name) feature material only about Marvel Comics, both old and new.  And it will be more about artwork than my snarky comments.  The images/scans will be quite large and you may even be able to use them as your desktop wallpaper.  Drop on by and give me some feedback!  Nuff said.

Link: Giant-Size Marvel, A Blog for True Believers!

Ray Wise and Bret Harrison have reasons to smile.  Reaper has been renewed for 13 more episodes!  Sounds like we will have to wait until mid-season, but hopefully they will be killer episodes.

Link: Reaper producers interviewed on TV Guide about Season One Finale.

Link: Ken Marino (Tony the Demon) interview on Slice of SciFi podcast.

Don't forget Gallery Photon!  Nuff said.

Link: Brian Bolland Cover Gallery at Gallery Photon.

Reaper is the only new show that I like from the 2007-2008 season.  Earlier in the year, a lot of critics compared Reaper unfavorably to Chuck.  They claimed that Reaper hewed too closely to a formula and that the characters plodded through each episode.  But as much as I wanted to like Chuck, and as much as I do lust Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck is the show that seems to follow a dull recipe.

Reaper started off with a pattern in the early episodes, but I kept watching because I loved all the characters.  The three main characters (Sam, Sock, and Ben) are modern-day slacker GhostBusters, hunting down the Devil's rejects from hell.  Ray Wise is so damned likable as the Devil that you would love to hang out with him in a bar.  The first few shows were variations on the pilot (directed by Kevin Smith) where Sam gets a briefing on the escaped soul from Hell, receives a goofy Vessel (click here for a complete list of Vessels), fumbles the initial encounter, but later recovers and finds a way to capture the soul.  Sam lived at home with his parents, who sold his soul to the Devil before he was born.  In one episode we watched as Sam's father burned a few key pages in the binding contract they made.  This is a key plot point that will be further developed in the season finale on May 20th.

The writers started breaking down the formula mid-way through the season, and went even further after the writers strike.  "Unseen" had the boys move out of their parents homes and into a nice bachelor pad.  Their gay couple neighbors (played by Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino) spoil them silly with gourmet food and expensive alcohol.  The plot thickened when Sam discovered that the neighbors are Demons, but good ones, trying to overthrow Satan.  Later, Sam finds out that the Devil arranged for him to live in the condo for the purpose of spying on his rebellious employees.  This is also playing out into the season finale.

Sam's stalled relationship with Andi (Missy Peregrym) was a disaster in the early episodes, nothing but longing looks and tender moments at the Work Bench.    The Devil told Sam that she could never know his secret.  Later, the Devil rescinded this edict, after saying that Sam owed him a big favor in return (the Demon rebellion).  What would any woman do after she witnessed her boyfriend beheading a man and claiming that he worked for Satan?  Run!  Which is what Andi did, forcing Sock and Ben to tie her up and put her in the trunk of their car.  Somehow it all worked out and Andi adjusted to Sam's new job.  Until last week's episode, when an old boyfriend used Satanic powers to sway her away from Sam.  I liked Missy Peregrym ever since I saw her on Heroes and she's grown on me even more in this show.

As the first season of Reaper is getting ready to conclude, the show looks like it has lots of potential.  We've got a full fledged Scooby gang now that Andi has joined the crew.  The Satanic support network just keeps growing; in "Greg, Schmeg" Jeff Kober (Dodger from China Beach) appeared as Dennis, a twitchy-hippie Demon who runs a storage facility for Satanic supplies.  Sam is getting smarter about dealing with the Devil, figuring out how to nullify Greg's contract and advising others on how to stay away from Satan.  These guys still fumble the ball when it comes to chasing down sinners, but it's a lot of goofy fun. 

Looks like the CW is going to renew Reaper for a second season.  I sure as Hell hope so.  Nuff said.

Link: Krakoom, Bret Harrison's Official Site.

Link: Bret Harrison Inteview on EW about Season One finale.

Link: E Online reports that Reaper will be renewed for Season Two.

Link: Missy Peregrym Strut Magazine Photos.

TSOYA.  That's was the display on my XM Radio when I tuned into the channel 133, the PRI station.  TSOYA?  Sounds like a health food product.

No, it's an acronym for The Sound of Young America, hosted by "America's Radio Sweetheart", Jesse Thorn.  I discovered this program a couple of months ago, where I was stunned to hear Thorn interviewing two cast members of The Wire, Andre Roya and Wendell Pierce (Bubbles and Bunk).  After looking at the TSOYA archives, this podcast was immediately added to my Zune RSS feed.  (Yes, I am of those lunatic Zuners.)  Thorn hits my pop cultural G-Spot right on the money with guests like Chris Elliot, Nick Hornby, Ira Glass, Tony Millionaire, Austin Grossman, Elmore Leonard, Steven Wright, etc.  One of my favorite interviews was done last year with Marty Krofft, the producer-creator behind HR Pufnstuff and a gaggle of other Saturday morning shows.  Comics professionals pop into the podcast from time to time.

This interview with Evanier is really good.  I've been pushed over the edge to buy Kirby: King of Comics.  Listening to Mark Evanier talk, I really think he's one of the luckiest guys in the world, to get to know both Jack and Roz Kirby in their home and watch the King create some of the most memorable comics of all time.  Both the podcast and the book bring some new insights into Kirby, something which I didn't think was possible, as I have a ton of Kirby material already from TwoMorrows.  I've flipped through the book at Borders and it's really well done.  It has some amazing Kirby pencils and the larger size of the hardcover makes it easy to appreciate them.

Link: Mark Evanier on TSOYA Podcast, discussing Kirby: King of Comics.

Link: Maximumfun.org, the home of TSOYA.

Link: Mark Evanier's Blog.

This was a stellar episode.  It's been a year since we saw Locke and Ben go into Jacob's cabin in Season Three.  Every since this new season started, I kept waiting to see when Locke would return.  Now that he's found the cabin, it just opens up more and more mysteries.

Christian and Claire are in Jacob's cabin.  I expected Christian to be there, based on the freeze frames posted on LostEasterEggs back in January.  When Claire disappeared in "Something Nice Back Home", I predicted that she would be in the cabin with Christian.  Are Christian and Claire alive or dead?  I think they are dead and somehow the island manifests the dead in order to speak with the living.  I just cannot imagine Claire willingly leaving Aaron to Sawyer.  Christian's situation is more complex.  In the Season Three finale there was that famous scene in the future where Jack said, "Go and get my father...".  In last week's Jack-centric episode, Christian appeared fleetingly before this mystery could be solved.  I'm still betting that Christian is dead, but I think it is pretty cool that this ties back to an episode in Season One where Jack follows his father around the island.  We thought Jack was hallucinating but now we know he wasn't.  Gotta get the Season One DVD set and watch that one again.

Locke has been "chosen" by the island since his birth.  I almost fell out of my chair when Richard Alpert showed up at the hospital where baby Locke was being incubated.  Again, this ties back to Season Three, where Alpert gives Locke a suggestion to have Sawyer kill his father.  I had the feeling that Alpert favored Locke over Ben and was trying to help him.  Now we learn that Alpert has been trying to help Locke since he was born!  Mittelos Bioscience is the company associated with Alpert; they recruited Juliet to do research on the island.  All Lost fans have been wondering why Alpert seems to be ageless, appearing in the past as young as he is today.  Is Alpert immortal, or is he using portals on the island to travel back/forth through time?  As for Locke himself, is the process of being "chosen" resemble how the Dalai Lama is selected?  It was eerily that Locke drew a picture of the smoke monster as a kid.  I love the moment when Locke says to his teacher "Don't tell me what I can't do!"

Matthew Abaddon tells Locke he should "walkabout".  If there's any character besides Alpert that I need to see more of, it is Matthew Abaddon.  I was stunned to see him pushing Locke's wheelchair.  How many of us thought he was going to dump Locke's paralyzed body over the stairwell?  It seems like Abaddon has a connection to the island as well.  Yet he apparently works for Widmore, having organized the Freighter expedition.  Genius casting by hiring Lance Reddick from the Wire.

Keamy's device on his arm.  What is that thing?  I am betting that is a smaller, portable version of the sonar fence that kept the smoke monster away from the Others.  Keamy is truly the Big Bad this season.  He's just slaughtering people left and right to get back to the island.  Did you notice that when Keamy pulls the secondary protocol out of the safe, it has a Dharma logo on the cover?  Maybe Widmore backed the Dharma bums.

I can't wait to hear this episode discussed on my favorite LOST Podcasts:

LOST: The Transmission

LOSTCasts

Just thought of a weird LOST connection to Jack Kerouac. When I was in high school, I read Kerouac's books and was in that whole mindset of takin' off on the road and having adventures.

We've learned in Season Four that Ben uses the alias "Dean Moriarty" when he travels off the island.  As many LOST bloggers have noted, Dean Moriarty was the alias used for Neal Cassady in the famous beat novel by Jack Kerouac , On the Road.

And just today, my ancient stony mind remembered my second favorite Kerouac book, The Dharma Bums.  I liked this book because it took place in Northern California and one of the characters was based on Grass Valley poet Gary Snyder (Japhy Ryder), who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  Kerouac also describes hearing Allen Ginsberg perform his famous poem HOWL (Wail in the book) in San Francisco.

Can't see any other LOST connection than the title, can you?  Nuff said.

Let's not waste any time: as a videogame, LOST Via Domus completely sucks.  I have learned this because I have played the game to 100% completion, not once, but twice, on two game consoles.  Yet there may be a small minority of people out there who will enjoy playing the game.  Crazy people.  Like us.

Reading the previews about this game, I was very excited.  The LOST writers contributed a lot of good things to the game, helping to create a brand new character, Eliot, a survivor of Oceanic Flight 815 that we've never seen before.  The main problem is that Eliot has amnesia and people are trying to kill him.  This is really cool, because Eliot has his own flashbacks that you play through and his own mysteries that will be uncovered.  He has connections to Locke and the Widmore/Hanso conspiracy.  Eliot will explore many key areas of the island that we've seen in the first three seasons of LOST, from the Black Rock to the Hatch to the Others camp.  Due to what he learns about the Hanso foundation, Eliot is driven to escape the island and triggers a wild ending that appears to be approved by Damon and Carlton (Lost's showrunners).  Damon remarked on an ABC podcast that the Via Domus ending is not a dream sequence.  It echoes some of the time-bending island aspects that we've seen in Season Four.

However, the game play really sucks in LOST and it won't be worth it for most people.  Eliot really does not have very many moves in the game.  He shoots a gun, very briefly, in 2 scenes toward the end.  He runs through the jungle a lot.  Eliot can interact with the famous LOST cast members (Jack, Locke, Ben, Juliet, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley), but only a few of them are voiced by the real actors.  In order to barter for things like torches, lamps, guns, etc., Eliot has to collect stupid things like coconuts, papayas, and candy bars.  There are many levels in the game that are extremely frustrating, such as navigating through waypoints in the forest and ducking into banyan trees whenever the smoke monsters is around.  Navigating through dark caves, which you do twice, is also miserable, because there are no clues of where you need to go.  In order to get through the flashbacks, Eliot has to take pictures with his camera, at exactly the right angle and the right moment in time.

I am such a die-hard LOST fan that I just had to play it as soon as possible.  Gamefly had it readily available for the Playstation 3 and I received it a few days after it came out.  It was frustrating, but with the help of an IGN strategy guide, I made it to the ending.  Then I realized, this game may be one of the few that I can get 1000 achievement points on XBox 360.  I rented it for that console and in a few hours did receive the magic 1000 point achievement of my dreams.

Bottom line: if you are not crazy, don't buy it.  If you have to play it, then rent it.  Nuff said.

LOST Via Domus ending on YouTube

IGN LOST Via Domus Review

IGN LOST Via Domus Strategy Guide

LOST Via Domus XBox 360 Achievement Guide