Thursday, January 28, 2010

This n’ That


I love two things with a passion that borders on….well passionate. Comic books and Baseball! With the Jets, sadly passing from the scene this past Sunday two thoughts hit my brain at the same instant (causing lights to flicker all up and down my block!):



What comics are coming out this week and…

How many days until pitchers and catchers.?

With that said how about these Babe Ruth comics! What a perfect marriage of comics and baseball THAT is! We tend to think of comics as being all about action/ adventure , superheroes and even romance. BUT during the 40’s and 50’s SPORTS comics had their niche as well.

Comics and baseball. It doesn’t GET any better! Go Yanks in 2010!!!




Since the first Wing Commander Game for the PC back in 1990, gamers have been looking for a truly interactive “movie” A game in which plot cut scenes and action move so seamlessly that the player becomes totally immersed in the action. This has been a Holy Grail of sorts with games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Assassin’s Creed coming close. But until now there has been no TRULY interactive game/movie hybrid. I say “until now” because the wait is OVER. I sat down with Mass Effect 2 last night and after playing through the first couple of missions I have to say that THIS game is a near perfect blending of cinematic plot and character development and game play goodness!

The characters are not just avatars to move the action along. They are fully fleshed out INDIVIDUALS and your choices have a very direct impact on how the well written plot unfolds. You have to strain to pick up where an in game cut scene ends and the combat begins. Accessing your inventory, powers and weapons uses the wheel system similar to Dragon Age and is completely non intrusive, so you always feel like you are IN the game. It says here that Mass Effect will be THE game of 2010!


Unabashed plugs!

The Flash gets his own title in April!

Black Widow gets HER own title in April!
Image is coming out with a Noir meets alien book called TURF in April that looks VERY interesting. The preview pages look wonderful and if you like the Marvel “Noir” books this may be up your alley. I know that I am going to jump on this!


See the boys (and girls) at CBJ and make sure you get ‘em on your pull list!!!

And while I am plugging I see that Power Girl #7 was only #95 in sales for October!!! Come on boys and girls! How many times have I mentioned that this is one of the funniest, sexiest and slam-bang ACTIONEST (is that a word??) titles on the shelves. Buy one! Buy TWO….I promise it’s like potato chips! You can’t read just one!!!

Do you really want to make HER mad at you??!!

Captain America Reborn #6 finally hit the stands this week. Not Brubaker’s strongest work but still pretty darn good! Of course I am thrilled that Steve Rogers is back (though due to scheduling issues he has actually BEEN back for a couple of months now). My daughter always likes to point out that I prefer the GOOD good guys like Cap and Superman to the BAD good guys like Punisher. Well that IS true but especially so with Cap.

I had left comic collecting after the “crash” in the mid-90’s, not long after the death and resurrection of Superman. I packed up about 30 long boxes that represented my collection and gave them an honored place in an elevated and dry spot in my basement, thinking that I was done with them for good. Pass them on to Alyx (someday the grand kids) and spend my golden years watching endless Star Trek and Buffy re-runs while eating chille with my fingers, drinking beer and exploring new methods of flatulence. It would have been an honorable enough passing into old age but LO!

(and how many times have you seen the word “Lo” lately?)

In 2007, on my way to work I was leafing through the Daily News and saw the earth shaking article that said Cap was going to DIE in issue #25!. “GREAT SCOTT!” I blurted…(it might have been Holey Moley or even It’s Clobberin’ Time but I digress) and ran out to get a copy…and who was this Brubaker guy anyway??

Well like any addict, all it took was ONE comic and I was BACK collecting comics at a record pace. So now three years ( and 12 MORE long boxes later) Cap and I are both back together, my wife is threatening to throw both me AND the comics out if I don’t move the boxes deeper into the basement, and I am not YET eating chille with my fingers.

You might say I was saved by Captain America!

That’s 30!

Mitch

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