Gamer Preview: ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time”

I can easily say that I was a huge fan of Beenox and Activision‘s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions where you played four different versions of Spider-Man in a level based adventure. It was a nice change from most Spider-Man games that have come out in the last decade, especially when giving players the chance to play as Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, and Symbiote Ultimate Spider-Man.

The game was good, not without a few issues, but overall I had fun playing it. But the best levels were easily Amazing (Noir was great but repetitive) and 2099 in my opinion, so I’m quite excited to hear the news that a sequel to Shattered Dimensions is coming out, and will focus on these two characters exclusively.

Continue reading Gamer Preview: ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time”

Bat-Comics: Harvey Dent, Jason Todd, and the History of Gotham

A lot has happened since my Gratuitous Batman Update from a while back, so I thought I’d try to get you caught up a little on the source material – the comic books.

Let’s start with something I didn’t cover last time around, the new series from David Finch and Scott Williams

– Batman: The Dark Knight #1-2

This new book looks at Bruce Wayne while Dick, Tim, and Damian are off on their own. These first 2 issues have Bruce looking for a kidnapped girl, and his search leads him to Killer Croc. Croc is strung out on a low-street grade of ‘venom’, the drug that Bane uses to bulk up. Bats learns that Croc is working as muscle for The Penguin, but not until after Batman tortures Cobblepot, breaking several of his limbs. The 2nd issue ends with Batman captured by Croc and ready to be tortured.

I like the art, I love the story, both issues were enjoyable and I look forward to the 3rd.

 

– Batman #710

Issues 708 and 709 (Which were reviewed Here) closed up the ‘Judgement on Gotham’ arc, so we now look to #710, we do so at the start of a new story; Two-Face Returns!

Harvey Dent is back in town and missing his lucky coin, so he’s killing his way through Gotham looking for it. Well, Dent seems now forever tied to the Falcone Crime Family, and when Mario Falcone hears about his return he sets a trap. Mario is accompanied by a mysterious woman, and it’s not till the last page we find out who she is – Gilda Dent. The book ends with Gilda putting several bullets into Harvey’s chest…


– Detective Comics #875-876

Most of 875 focuses on flashbacks of Jim Gordon’s, and what lead him to believe his own son is a killer. Batman doesn’t actually show up till the end of the book, but we’re lead to believe that Jim Jr. killed one of Barbara’s friends as a child and the Commissioner is convinced his son hasn’t changed. This seems to be building to something bigger to come. In 876 we get back to Bats and his investigation into the appearance of a giant killer whale in the lobby of a bank. This leads Dick to a custom car lot in which is about to be crushed to death when the story stops.

A relatively short issue, though we are given a preview to Arkham City #1 in the back…

– Batman: Arkham City #1 – CLICK HERE

– Batman & Robin #22-23

In issue 22 we wrap up the ‘White Knight’ arc and are given another respectable addition to the Rouges Gallery. This one isn’t as strong as the last chapter, but we do see him head to Arkham in an attempt to wipe out the scum that reside there once and for all. In the end we learn that the White Knight’s father was a guard at Arkham before being killed in a riot by Dr. Phosphorous. Before the Knight (aka Lewis Bayard) can return the favor his is put down by out new Dynamic Duo. It’s nice to see Dick and Damian starting to build their own Rouge’s Gallery to add to Bruce’s. In addition to the White Knight, you could also credit them with Prof. Pyg, The Flamingo, and The Dealer. Not too shabby a crew.

Issue 23 brings us not only a new arc, but a new creative team as well. Tomasi, Gleason, and Gray are replaced by Winick, March, and Bresson. And the new team kicked things off with a bang, going back to where the book began, dealing with Jason Todd. Todd is demanding to be transferred out of Arkham and into a regular prison as he is crazy, only psychotic. Once transferred he starts killing other inmates at a prodigious rate and is ultimately sent back to Arkham, only this time the transport doesn’t make it. A new team of apparent ThunderCat rejects attack the convoy and free Jason. Their motives are not made clear, but the appear to be headed on the road to being jobbers more so than respectable villains.

– Batman: Gates of Gotham #1 of 5

This is the start of a 5 Issue Mini-Series examining the some of the most prominent families in Gotham. The book starts out in the 1881 as we see the start of planing for the great City to be. Present at the meeting are men belonging to the families of Wayne, Cobblepot, and Elliot.

Present day we see Bruce and Tim tracking down a shipment of explosives that have entered Gotham, and we see the 3 oldest bridges in Gotham blown up. It’s only then that they begin to see the look into the connection between the Penguin, Hush, and the Waynes. The end of the issue teases the reveal of the fourth ‘Family of Gotham’, but we’ll have to wait to find out who that is…

For some more cover art on upcoming issues, you can CLICK HERE….

Flashpoint: Map of the Time Shattered DC Universe

I always love alternate universe/timeline stories in comic books. You get to see characters die that you normally wouldn’t and characters are alive that have been dead for ages. Sometimes you get role reversals where certain heroes are scum ridden pieces of trash and occasionally the villains may be a hero or someone not as bad as their real universe counterpart. Then you also get to see how the world map is drawn differently, such as in the Age of Apocalypse in the Marvel Universe. The evil mutant Apocalypse is ruler of all the United States in that universe, dividing up the country to his Four Horsemen.

Things are no different in DC’s Flash-centric Flashpoint storyline where things are completely ass backwards. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are at war with one another, resulting in the death of millions, because in this timeline they are not the superheroes we know and love. Check out the map below: (thanks IGN)

The Black Adam protectorate? I hate that guy! And it would appear that Brazil is currently… Nazi controlled? What the hell. At least the Aussies were able to sit this one out, but one can only wonder when some super hero turned genocidal villain will set their sights on them! If you haven’t checked out Flashpoint yet, then go pick up the first issue! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Vin Diesel is ‘The Machine’

In what one can only describe as a serious lapse in judgment, or just a classic bonehead move, Vin Diesel will return to our movie screens next as The Machine: A top secret military weapon buried and deactivated only to be reactivated at a later date by… a kid.  Ohhhh boooooy. In even worse news, it is described as an action-comedy.

The scribes of this family friendly film are the same guys who brought us the Night at the Museum movies and The Pacifier. For those of you who have not seen The Pacifier, it another family movie that Vin Diesel did back in 2005, which resulted in us not seeing Diesel in anything worthwhile until 2009’s Fast and Furious. The Pacifier follows a Navy SEAL charged with protecting five kids of a deceased government scientist from his enemies: A Navy SEAL babysitter basically.

Could he be heading down the same road in doing The Machine? It just seems odd that he would try to capitalize off of the huge success of Fast Five in the past month to tackle another action franchise.

Domo’s Thoughts on The Machine

He could easily have returned to the xXx franchise as Xander Cage, or even do a Riddick movie right this time around while his name is still warm from the heat of Fast Five. But no, we get the Iron Giant rip off. Maybe Pacifier 2: The Hunt for Osama Bin Laden will soon follow. Are there any Vin Diesel fans out there that think otherwise? Is The Machine a pretty good career choice for the Diesel?

The Devil’s Double – Trailer

Read anything about Uday Hussein and you’ll find that he was indeed one sick bastard. Not only that, the little scum bag lived lavishly his whole life up until the U.S. military ended his sorry ass. He owned hundreds of cars, having them painted each day to match the suit he was wearing and even passed a law making it illegal for anyone to import a Lamborghini into Iraq because he wanted to be the only one in the country with that type of car. He used his position as Saddam Hussein’s son to murder, rape and rob all those around him, so understandably he’d have a lot of enemies and people wanting to kill him. (Rightfully so.) So he took a page from his demented father’s book and found an ex-classmate who resembled him and forces him to be his body double.

The Devil’s Double shows what that life may have been like for the double named Latif Yahia and to remind us of what pieces of dog shit the Husseins were. Check out the trailer below:

Even though I don’t want to give the Hussein family a second thought, I have to admit the film looks intriguing. The guy looked as if he was trying to be an Iraqi Scarface times ten. Dominic Cooper seems to be giving a wonderful double performance as both Uday and Latif that begs the question if he’ll be nominated for any awards. To me that is a complex part to play with two characters who are so different, but one of them may start to like the life that he is forced to take. Perhaps at one point in the movie he truly will be Uday’s brother before trying to find a way out of his predicament.

Dark Knight Rises: Bane Revealed…

So starts the viral ad campaign for the next installment of Nolan’s Batman franchise.

Fan Made Poster…

This comes to us from Hero Complex:

In a stroke of viral marketing brilliance, Christopher Nolan gave his intrepid fans on Twitter a sneak preview of “The Dark Knight Rises“: the first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane in the next Batman film.

As fans discovered, tweeting “#thefirerises” helps fill in the hidden Tom Hardy image on “The Dark Knight Rises” website, which launched Friday. Holy Twitter, Batman! What a way for Nolan to mark the first week of filming.

Tom Hardy is becoming one of my favorite actors, and while I didn’t love the movie Bronson, it was his performance in there that proved to me he was the right choice for Bane, and no doubt helped Nolan’s vision as well.

I can’t wait for 2012…