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X- Men

xmen

Of all the things people said would come in the year 2000, something did change. Superhero movies stepped up there games ten fold. The first to begin the trend was X-Men.

In the debut film we are introduced to a world dealing with mutants, people with powers that normal people find dangerous. Mutants are often faced with hate and fear. Charles Xavier, a paraplegic telepath and founder of Xavier’s School for the Gifted believes man and mutant can peacefully co exist. Magneto, Charles’s old friend and holocaust survivor, believes they never will and mutants must assert there dominance over man. The two leader’s paths cross over a mysterious badass mutant named Wolverine and a young, dangerous women named Rogue and a plot by Magneto to kill the world’s leaders…

Almost two decades old, I’m glad the movie still holds up well. There are some damn great performances in it: Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan as Prof. X and Magneto, as well as Hugh Jackman’s iconic performance as Wolverine. There is a cool list of supporting characters and a good balance between action and drama. I do really recommend this film as a tried and true of the genre. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Archie Vs Predator

archie v pred

What happens when spring break for the Riverdale kids becomes a bloodbath and a certain dread-locked extraterrestrial with a bad attitude and a plasma castor comes to visit? This hilariously absurd comic crossover, that’s what. Archie and his friends go to a tropical island for break, enjoying there usual shenanigans until something catches Betty and Veronica cat fighting on the beach, and takes this as a act of conflict. An invitation amongst warriors. Teens begin going missing, being found dismembered all over the island, and Archie’s group barely survives. Relieved, they go back home, enjoying high school life and milkshakes- until the soda-jerk’s head randomly explodes in front of them from a unseen origin, just a quick burst of light. Now the hunt is on in Riverdale as Archie, Betty, Veronica and the rest of his friends must battle the badass Predator.

This is one of my favorite comic book reads. Funny, crazy, and just so WTF. There is 4 comic books or a graphic novel so it’s a quick read. I never read a Archie comic but I’m a fairly ample Predator fan and I can tell you they did him justice. I will watch Riverdale if they devote a season to this. I recommend it for a great laugh and some awesome Predator kills. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dead By Daylight, Saw DLC Preview

Saw returns with a vengeance in 2018. Jigsaw hit blu-ray and dvd and Dead by Daylight. Watching bits and pieces, I can’t lie, the game looks like a horror nerd’s dream come true. I drooled (figuratively of course) at the footage of Michael Myers go. We’ve also gotten additions with Freddy Kruger and Leatherface as well. Now comes Saw’s turn, getting to play as the infamous pig-masked stalker looks cool and the Gideon Meat Plant looks like a perfect match for the game. Enjoy the bloody goodness as we play a game and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Godzilla: Monster planet

godzilla monster planet

Full Disclaimer: unlike many of my friends, I’m not a avid Godzilla fan nor a particular fan of Kaiju in general. Not to say I don’t mind the promise of giant monster crashing and thrashing through the civilization we busted our asses o build- if you had my job, you would find yourself wishing a radioactive iguana would tear through your workplace to break the monotony of the day.

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction and is forced to live in space, isolated, losing oxygen, supplies, and hope. But Why? What caused our ultimate downfall? Godzilla. What’s left of the human race is desperate to find another habitable world to no avail. Suddenly Earth becomes the only option, despite the unkillable beast. 1000’s of years passed and the environment and it’s creatures have changed, but the king of the monsters still lives. In the end, it’s up to an enraged major and a vast quantity of Earth’s last military to make a final stand against the insurmountable…

I have to say I wasn’t really a fan of this episode, and at 90 minutes it is a episode. Minor spoiler, there is generously 15 minutes of Godzilla in the whole thing but a hell of a lot of people telling you how either OP he is or how much they hate him. The animation quality varies. Sometimes good, sometimes strange. Like something about the way Godzilla is animated feels wrong or out of place. The rest of the time feels like a somewhat generic space plot. The action is kinda neat but I couldn’t help but think of Attack on Titan at times. For the casual fan, I can’t really recommend it honestly. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

I Feel Sick

i feel sick

I’m a strange individual. This is a comic book for strange individuals. This is a short review because well, it is literally on just a comic book. I don’t know much except it’s written by the creator of Invader Zim , a show I adored as a kid. It’s a dark comedy about the trails and tribulations of a girl obsessed with a painting she created of a doll. That being said, I never laughed so much while reading a comic book before. I absolutely fell in love with the grim, and often vulgar and bloody humor. As for the artwork, it is very reminiscent of Zim but kicked up to the next level on imagery. In such a short amount of time, I was intrigued by the strange story. I admit, this book isn’t for everyone. But I recommend it to my fellow weirdos out there. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Sandman: volume 1

sandman vol 1

Since I first came into the expansive world of comics, The Sandman’s reputation lingered as one of the best ever written. It took me a while, entrenched in the caverns of DC’s and Marvel’s heroes to expand my mind. Years later and I’m thrilled to say the praise is well deserved.

Sandman is a epic following Morpheus, the god of dreams, as he is mistakenly captured and imprisoned by a madman for decades who originally wanted his sister, Death. After decades and lives of innocents ruined by his entrapment, he finds freedom and takes revenge on the sole surviving son of his captor, leaving Dream with a task: obtain what was pilfered from him. His pouch of sand, his helm, and his ruby derived from his essence. To retrieve these things he will walk amongst other worlds, coming across John Constantine and the psycho formerly known as Dr Destiny, challenge a denizen from hell, and travel through the world of reality, hell, and dreams as he must inevitably search for purpose after his revenge is done and his power restored…

This is one of those rare stories you can’t put down because you feel something original within it’s pages. Between Neil Gaimen’s fantastic writing and the talented artists, all of which put there hearts into this, are addictive to the eyes and heart. It is very abstract and the beginning is a bit vague so I can’t recommend this to people who want something action heavy or simple. I’d call this a thinking man’s kind of story. In the end, I will call Sandman one of the best pieces I’ve ever read and recommend giving it a shot. May the gaming gods bring you glory and sweet dreams.

5 of my favorite super teams

jla

You ever get a rush watching a climatic battle full of your favorite costumed badasses throw down against a huge army or indestructible foe? Well, like millions of other nerds, I do too. So here’s my list in order of my favorite super teams in order starting with

5. JLA- one of the classics and very first it’s hard not to get excited seeing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern getting together to kick some ass.

f4 4 4. Fantastic 4- Marvel’s first family and explorers into the strange and cosmic, despite the swarm of crappy movies, I always got love for Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing.

classic xmen 3. X Men- The Students of Xavier’s School helped start my descent into my love of Marvel. There has been tons of X Men over the years, so many I couldn’t list (near the next film I’ll get deeper into my favorites.) but they are awesome.

2. Teen Titans- I can’t lie, this is strictly on the list because of how much I loved the early 2000’s series but damn near 20 years later the friendship between Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beastboy stuck with me and that says volumes.

gotg 1. Guardians of the galaxy- I got introduced to the comics a year before the movie came out and fell in love with these flawed but cool characters. Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccon, and Groot with awesome guest Guardians throughout make them my favorite.

May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

batman under the red hood

If you caught my list of Top 5 badasses of DC or my Batman: Arkham Knight review, I touched on the badass of Red Hood.

The crime lords in Gotham begin getting hunted by a new vigilante calling himself The Red Hood. Killing the thugs of crimelord Black Mask, Batman notices the precision in which hood operates and the hood itself makes him recall Joker. Hood however is not the typical bad guy, taking control of the drug trade to help fund his murderous campaign, he has one rule- don’t sell to kids- which he strictly enforces. When the time comes for Batman and Red Hood to face off and the truth comes out about his identity, Batman must come to terms with the ultimate fate of his former ward, Jason Todd, and stop him before he murders Joker, proving the futility of Batman’s nonlethal methods…

I know the review maybe brief but there is a LOT to this story. As a story it is compelling and Red Hood is a badass. While Batman is awesome, Red Hood makes a damn convincing argument and steals the show with his gritty kill scenes and his interactions with his former mentor. If you plan on reading it, I do recommend reading Batman: Death in the Family before where you get the events that lead to Todd’s death. I enjoyed this book and say it’s worth checking out if you are a Batman fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: Death in the family

batman death in fam

Of all comics I’ve experienced so far, no hero has had more classic tales over the years than the Dark Knight himself. One of his most darkest tragedies is the tale of Jason Todd, the second Robin.

We begin this story with Bruce and Todd’s relationship getting rocky. Todd, getting older is becoming rebellious and angry. Discovering that the mother he knew was not his biological mother, Todd ventures into the middle east to find her- trailed by a worried Batman. Batman and Robin become entangled in a dastardly affair involving nuclear weapons, Joker and Todd’s real mother. Taken by Joker, Todd is tortured and beaten nearly to death by a crowbar, dying with his mother after failing to save her from a bomb. Batman’s iconic failure to save is brilliantly captured as he cradles Jason’s body. Left torn inside, Batman is left to take Joker down, but at the risk of causing a war with the middle east…

The tragedy of Jason Todd is a story we saw referenced in Batman Vs Superman and Arkham Knight and many other stories. I found this to be a surprisingly epic story I found really intriguing as well as really tragic. For an older comic, I was surprised how graphic it was but I somehow found it more effective than the overly dark tone of say Killing Joke. I will say A Death in the Family is one of my favorite Batman stories and I highly recommend it to Batman fans. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Pokemon 3

pokemon 3

By 2001, I began falling out of the Pokemon craze and appropriately so we get a epic finale to the original trilogy of Pokemon movies.

Pokemon 3, also titled Spell of the Unknown,is a strange tale of imagination, loneliness, and coming to terms with reality. A girl named Molly is sad after her father disappears after going on a archaeological dig. All she has to remember him by is the pieces of a old puzzle, awakening the Unknown, warping reality to Molly’s whim. She generates Entei, fusing the legendary Pokemon with her father’s voice but all that is missing is a mother. Entei steals Ash’s, so now Ash and his friends are left to save her and defeat the Unknown.

Of the 3, I would say it is my favorite story. There is something dark and rather sad about this particular story. On a personal note, I lost my mother right around the time this came out so not being much older than Molly, it impacted me a lot as a kid. I enjoyed the fantastical elements. There are sweet battles and cool dreamy settings. The end I found sad but wasn’t grim. If you want something a bit deeper and a little bit darker than the first two movies but I highly recommend it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.