Stennick Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 So I've been nerding out on comics, cartoons, movies and other such addictive superhero material so I thought I'd create a catch all for that. I noticed you guys in the MMO thread were talking about Champions Online. Sounded like 1500's guys with axes beating each other up only to learn its a super hero MMO so how is it? I also read it uses the engine they were going to use for Marvel before they cut Marvel out of the deal saying they didn't have the ability to compete in the MMO market only to create an entirely fictional MMO that one would guess has even less of a chance? Is this just a case of not wanting to share the proceeds with Marvel? Also Gazillion Entertainment signed on for a Marvel MMO well for Marvel Entertainment in general in March of last year any news on that? In other SuperHero news IronMan 2 makes me not able to wait. I'm not a big fan of WarMachine or any of the other Iron Man characters per say I'm more of a fan of Stark and how Downey comes across as just playing himself which is awesome to think that if he had a few billion more dollars he'd be a real life version of Tony Stark. I've started watching the Justice League cartoons for the first time. I watched the first three episodes. I know fan boys put this in the same league as Spectacular Spiderman, Fox's X Men and other great Superhero cartoons but so far the whole alien storyline didn't grab me but I can see how it set it up them teaming together and the whole outer space HQ. I'm hoping to see some DC villians pop in here soon though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djthefunkchris Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I've done quite a bit of research on DC and Marvel, and I find the stuff in wiki alot easier to deal with then watching the cartoons or reading the magazines. I like getting the whole story at once, even if it's in "short form". Some interesting things that have changed since I was a kid, are the reboots in DC and the "almost" reboots in Marvel. DC has rebooted a few times, actually, but the current one is not that hard to understand once you get your mind wrapped around it.... bassically they just conformed the other reboots into getting back to where they were in the 70's in my opinion, which at the time wasn't as bad on paper as it looks now. You have the multiverse back, you have different stories and outcomes in different realities (or universe's), similar to how it was before the first major reboot (which brought it all into one universe, actually destroying some characters' in the process). Marvel did similar things in a not so similar way, by having a huge mutant population becoming normal, and Spiderman kind of going back in time (although in current time) to keep his aunt alive, which bassically re-wrote him getting married, etc... I am not "Up to date" on any of it, just a couple of things I found interesting. As far as continuity goes, I like the New DC timeline better then the Marvel one, as I can grasp actual dates. There is nothing to stop it ending back where it was 20 years ago though, so it's only "for the moment" that I prefer it. The Marvel continuity has too many "5 years before FF" stuff to deal with. Meaning that although you have a character born in 1943, his brother that was born 10 years later according to some source's, ends up being around 30 instead of 50. So where to put them in the timeline is confusing, since he was around before the fantastic four, but if you put years in there, you know the FF debuts in the 60's. So you slide that timeline up to current time (put it in around the year 1980 for example), and then things start to make a bit more sence, yet you still have alot of problems elsewhere. DC Universe online is still awaiting to debut, but I have to confess I think I like other MMO that is already out better then I will like DC, just be listening to what you can and cannot do in DC Online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franchise22 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 i really didnt like the trailer for Iron Man 2. Something didnt seem right. With that being said, ill still see it, but im not as hype as i was before the trailer. It should be the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cappyboy Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 You know I find it interesting we start this thread off this thread discussing the various timeline reboots the major companies have done and that Iron Man has been front and center so far. I tend to stay back in the long ago "ghetto" because modern versions of comics so rarely resonate for me. Either the art style's too big for its britches or there is too much snark or the mood's too dark and depressing. Whatever it is, it always seems to be something that sends me back to the Essential/Showcase kiddie years for the light escapsim I expect from the comics. That said though, if there's one character I've read who desparately needed the modern reboot, it's Iron Man. I took Essential Vol. 1 of his on one of the family trips to Tennessee a couple years ago and I marvel, pardon the pun, how I got through it. Tony himself was an awesome character. Injured war vet who just barely survived. Metalling over his chest to protect his weakened inner organs. Playing the playboy but always on guard with the women out of self-consciousness about the metal chest. But the supporting cast was a disaster. They couldn't decide whether Pepper should be library chic as befits the nickname or if they wanted her to be the classic comic bombshell. Happy, the bodyguard, had a quality backstory (considering the target audience) and a potentially interesting love triangle with his boss around Pepper but had all the personality of the chair I'm sitting in. The villians were good enough for the time and capture the spirit of the age well. But no one jumped out like a Green Goblin or Dr. Doom. It's clear the reason he lasted long enough to reach the "renewal chamber" ($1 to Logan's Run) is because the target audience were young children and thus not likely to be as demanding about the fine points of writing. Usually I can ride along with the "weaknesses" and "logic holes" of the time for the sake of the ride. With Iron Man, I couldn't. And without the kid base to lay the foundation, I struggle to believe enough other people would have for there to be discussion of movie traliers and stars the caliber of Robert Downey Jr. around the character. You want to talk a hero who's lucky to be where he is today, that hero is Iron Man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franchise22 Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 i DESPISE mutliple version of a character with "alternate dimensions" as an excuse. i feel it takes away the depth of a character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarity Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Im gonna say first that i love comics. Been reading them forever. Began when i was little with 2000AD with Judge Dredd, Strontium Dogs, Armoured Gideon, ABC Warriors, Slaine etc before finding Marvel Comics in the early 90's. I read the entire Clone Saga in Spiderman, Cyclops and Jean Greys Wedding, Age of Apocalypse before stopping in around 2004 for a few years picking up again just before Civil War I think unfortunately with long running comics, reboots are needed especially in the days of the 'epic' crossovers like Civil War, Secret Invasion etc. Comic book companies seem to allow writers freedom to do what they want (ie Aunt May dying in Amazing Spiderman #400, Death of Doc Ock, Any X-Men death) and then retcon the entire thing later on once its become such a mess. Marvel comics essentially began in 1961 so i think it would be a very good idea if on the 50th anniversary they ended EVERYTHING and began anew. They dont have to 'Ultimate' it, just begin a brand new continuity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cappyboy Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Marvel comics essentially began in 1961 so i think it would be a very good idea if on the 50th anniversary they ended EVERYTHING and began anew. They dont have to 'Ultimate' it, just begin a brand new continuity. Now that could be interesting. I don't know how much I'd follow because I often struggle with the modern tone. But as I noted, there'd be the old Essential/Showcase continuity for me and then this one for folks who want to go forward. Room for both at the table that way rather than trying to wedge both together as they do presently by doing and then undoing key events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarity Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Now that could be interesting. I don't know how much I'd follow because I often struggle with the modern tone. But as I noted, there'd be the old Essential/Showcase continuity for me and then this one for folks who want to go forward. Room for both at the table that way rather than trying to wedge both together as they do presently by doing and then undoing key events. I think thats what the Ultimate series was originally meant to do however it seemed to diverge a fair bit on the X-Men series. Ultimate Spiderman was amazing apart from Osborn. He went from man in suit to actual monster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brashleyholland Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Have to give a shout out to what is fast becoming my favourite comic book of all time, The Boys. Great alternative take on superhero commics, really refreshing and a good read for the mature audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Wolf Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 Used to read tons of superhero comic books. At one point i owned every issue of Xcalibur. Growing up I always saw Marvel as over the top and DC as the more serious comic. I stopped reading Superhero comics for awhile, actually until this past weekend it had been probably 15 years since I bought a superhero comic. Mostly I'd by DC vertigo stuff (Sandman, Fables, Preacher, Book of Magic) or Hellboy. I've always been a big Green Lantern fan and this Blackest Night story arc I'm hearing really good things about, so I just picked up a few back trade paperbacks to catch up. I just started Tales of the Sinestro Crop and I have The Sinestro Corp War trades to finsih after that. So far its looking good so I think I'm gonna pick up Rage of the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange which will hopefully catch me up as all the Blackest Night stuff comes out in July. For comics in general I find both major companies to the same thing. The stories build and build and get massively convoluted and then they have soem kind of cross dimensional "crisis" that clears up all of the loose ends so they can continue not from a totally fresh pallet but at least from a more orderly starting point. It usually takes them a few issues to tell you what has and hasn't remained the same in the continuity and them they go on ahead muddling tigns up again until they need another dimension shattering evernt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stennick Posted January 17, 2010 Author Share Posted January 17, 2010 I started reading comics when it was the Death of Superman and then all the Superman/Women/Boy/Robots were showing up. Meanwhile around that time we had Spiderman/Xmen 2099 which I was a fan of but I was 10 so what do I know. Spiderman around this time had the Carnage saga which had everyone from Venom to Captain America. Come to think of it 92/93 was an awesome time for comics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remianen Posted January 17, 2010 Share Posted January 17, 2010 I also read it uses the engine they were going to use for Marvel before they cut Marvel out of the deal saying they didn't have the ability to compete in the MMO market only to create an entirely fictional MMO that one would guess has even less of a chance? Is this just a case of not wanting to share the proceeds with Marvel? Where did you hear this? It's so far from true, it might as well be "I heard a unicorn was walking down Fifth Avenue". Marvel backed out of the deal, Cryptic didn't make that call. Cryptic was stuck and almost out of money so they had to produce SOMETHING that would generate revenue after Marvel left them at the altar. Using the Champions license was far cheaper and fit the bill until they picked up the rotting carcass of the Star Trek license. Despite my collection, the only comics I really follow now are on the Wildstorm imprint. Plus, I tend to follow writers (like Gail Simone) and artists (Amanda Conner, Frank Cho, Adam Hughes, Talent Caldwell, J. Scott Campbell, etc) moreso than titles. I mean, I've always hated Wonder Woman....until Gail Simone got her hands on the character. I'm ambivalent now though. Since I hate many of their crossovers (Civil War, for example and don't get me started on House of M, the 198 and its aftermath) and it seems they use those to move units, I'll just stick to my tried & true. Oh and Stennick, CoH is still the best superhero MMO on the market. Champions has potential but Cryptic (and Atari) have little money to fully capitalize on it. Almost half of Champions' dev team (and part of the web team) are working on Star Trek so CO has been back burnered for a few months (probably March/April since they have to support STO post-release and get it up and humming. They didn't do that with CO but obviously 'Star Trek' is a higher profile property). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stennick Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 I googled Marvel MMORPG and came up with the wiki link and a few others. Again I'm far from stating it as fact and even the wiki article says that it was a mutual split of the relationship over mostly liscening issues with the Marvel characters. At any rate Gazillion Ent. is now in charge of getting it off the ground but thats about all the information I can find on it so my guess is that it will be a few years away. That being said doesn't DC having one launching any time now? I was told COH was a wasteland or a ghost town with no new updates on the horizon for it and no one really playing it. That being said I just pick up pieces here and there since I don't have the time to play all these different mmo's. I'm sticking to WoW for now until KOTR finally breaks through although I may give the DC one a look when or if its already out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Celt Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Just this last couple of months I've dappled in a few comics; The New X-Men (As in X-23, Hellion, Surge, Dust etc, etc), Vertigo's Sandman (It does seem to living up to it's reputation as a very,very intelligent piece) and Y: The Last man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stennick Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share Posted January 18, 2010 I don't like my comics with political (or other) overtones that bash you over the head the entire time. To me thats what Civil War did. I want my comics to show some ability to voice current ongoings but at the same time don't hit me over the head with it like they did. I was never much of a fan of DC but since the summer thats what I seem to be reading mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Casey Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Mostly I like my comics to be adventures, not politics. I'm not too 'smary' about them, so if they give me ten minutes of fun I'm happy. I've been reading X-Men for fifteen years or so, and Spider-Man for about twelve, so I've got a lot of comics around the place. One comic I'm enjoying is the 'What If' X-Men Forever non-continuity story that goes back to early 90s X-Men. It's simple, it's got Nick Fury, Wolverine is (currently) dead... Oh, and Wolverine should be left alone. I'm sick of him showing up in other comics. One X-Men team (X-Force, for preference) and his own comic(s) is plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobToxin Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 I was all into Marvel Comics in the 80s but they lost me when they did the whole "Everyone is a clone" storyline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Wolf Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Just this last couple of months I've dappled in a few comics; The New X-Men (As in X-23, Hellion, Surge, Dust etc, etc), Vertigo's Sandman (It does seem to living up to it's reputation as a very,very intelligent piece) and Y: The Last man. Sandman is probably one of the best written comics. If you enjoy it I also suggest reading Fables. Books of Magic exists in the same universe as Sandman but it just isn't as good. As a follow up on of my previous post I just finished Tales of the Sinestro Corp and books one and two of the Sinestro Corp Wars. I have to say I was impressed, The writing was good, the story intense and the set up for the continuing story of "The War of Light" looks to be quite interesting. Definitely going to be picking up "The Rage of the Red Lantern" and "Agent Orange". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomfreeze Posted January 18, 2010 Share Posted January 18, 2010 Just this last couple of months I've dappled in a few comics; The New X-Men (As in X-23, Hellion, Surge, Dust etc, etc), Vertigo's Sandman (It does seem to living up to it's reputation as a very,very intelligent piece) and Y: The Last man. I love Y: The Last Man. I've never tried to come up with a list of my favorite comics, but I assume that would be in there. I agree on Sandman...it's got a huge reputation so unless you love it it's going to be a disappointment. I don't think it's held up near as well as everyone says...I think the main comic run ended 20 years ago at this point. But I'm in the minority on this because most people love it. As Apu said, Fables is good, I've only read the first three trades but those were worth the time and money. I love Cerebus but trying to read all those phone books is a long journey itself. Starman from the 90's was also different for it's time and told a pretty awesome superhero story. This past year one of my favorite trades I read was Chew, which is about a police detective who gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. Good place to buy comic trades online is here http://www.instocktrades.com/default.aspx Everything is about 37% off and shipping is only $4 unless you get more than $50 then it's free. I promise I don't get a cut even though I sound like a sponsor lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remianen Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 So, Wonder Woman's new costume: http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2010/06/newwwcostume.jpg Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorBait19 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 So, Wonder Woman's new costume: http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2010/06/newwwcostume.jpg Discuss. I personally like the new look. I know most older traditional fans wont agree, but DC as well as Marvel have to do something to increase comic book sales. I believe I read somewhere that sales numbers have fallen like 6 years in a row and that's with the big budget movies giving the characters a mainstream boost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stennick Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 I doubt that changing a character's costume is going to spark any sort of sales. I get what your saying something needs to change but costumes aren't really it. Comic sales are dropping because not as many people need them. In the 80's and early 90's still even kids didn't have the outlets for entertainment that they have today. There were no such thing as complete DVD sets of any series you could think of to watch, 300 plus channels of television, there wasn't the internet, etc. I'm sure book sales drop more and more every year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaysin Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I never liked Wonder Woman and a new costume isn't going to change that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorBait19 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I doubt that changing a character's costume is going to spark any sort of sales. I get what your saying something needs to change but costumes aren't really it. Comic sales are dropping because not as many people need them. In the 80's and early 90's still even kids didn't have the outlets for entertainment that they have today. There were no such thing as complete DVD sets of any series you could think of to watch, 300 plus channels of television, there wasn't the internet, etc. I'm sure book sales drop more and more every year. actually if I remember right, book sales because of schools have remainded steady with little drops hear and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basmat01 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Anyone else loving the cartoons movies marvel have been releasing? -The Avengers movies 1 & 2 -Hulk Vs Thor -Hulk Vs Wolverine -Planet Hulk -The Next Avengers Seen them all and loved them even though I dont really watch cartoons anymore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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