Survivor: What the heck...

...was that snake thing all about?

Does anybody know what in the world that snake was doing? I'm seriously freaked out by this and I need some answers.

Help me, Dr. Science!

 

It's on, Dan Adams!

Okay, so I thought we were supposed to post important stuff. But since you saw fit to post your awesome dragonrider concept I had to respond with mine.

 

Absolute New Frontier

Now that Darwin Cooke's Spirit is finally a reality, I thought I'd take a look back at the recent Absolute edition of his New Frontier series. I'll be offering an official review on the new volume soon but for those of you who can't wait, it's totally worth it. (Well, it's worth the $45 you can find it for, but not quite worth the $75 asking price.)

In brief the six-issue New Frontier series is Darwin Cooke's attempt to retell the origin of the Justice League. But that basic narrative idea is expanding to the point that the series chronicles the transition from DC's Golden Age to its Silver Age and manages to tie the origins and actions of the 50s and 60s age heroes to each other in a very convincing context. The massive cast and intricate plot might have collapsed in on itself but Darwin Cooke has managed to pull it off beautifully. It's one of the greatest series I've read in a long time and will definitely please fans who are familiar with the classic DC continuity.

The Absolute edition includes 12 new story pages. Half of them show the Challengers and Suicide Squad traveling back to the island where the Losers first landed. This bit makes it a little clearer what's going on with the island and actually sets up Jess Bright's eventual mental breakdown -- which, honestly, did kind of come out of nowhere in the original version. A couple of new pages reveal a bit more of the origin of Martian Manhunter and the Flash, which should keep newcomers a little more oriented to those characters.

The only superfluous pages are those that actually show the Dr. Suess stand-in starting to suffer under the strain of writing his latest book. It kind of takes you out of the story and removes a little of the mystery that comes out of stumbling across the finished book in later issues.

Fans will also be happy to see that Cooke has annotated the whole damn book, discussing his references, storytelling rules and even showing off loads of covers from the books that inspired the story.

Cooke also includes plenty of behind the scenes artwork, showing off how he builds a story, from basic concept to coloring and lettering. The inclusion of abandoned rough pages and step-by-step layouts really gives you a sense of how the issues came together.

Like I said, the book really isn't worth the $75 price but you can find it for almost half that, which is only slightly more than you'd spend on the trades. At that price, it's definitely worth checking out.

 

Two Obvious Problems with Marvel Ultimate Alliance Online

Okay, so we've been planning on playing this bitch for months now because it sounded so cool. After wrestling with it for a few hours tonight, there are some obvious improvements that need to be made.

First, let the host send out invitations during the actual game. I don't know how this little convenience slipped through the cracks, but having to relaunch a session just to get people involved in the action is completely stupid.

Second, during any menu screens or dialogs, all the other players have to do to quit the game is hit B and then A. Uh, excuse me, Raven? When players are trying to pull off combos, aren't they going to be hitting B and A like there's no freaking tomorrow? Tonight we beat a boss and a dialog window came up just as I started a combo. Bam! Suddenly, I'm out of the stupid game.

So far I like the game fine but the online portion really needs to be polished up quite a bit.

 

The Great Comic Reclamation Project

So I started buying up all the comics I foolishly gave up when I first moved out the West Coast. My latest acquisition is the three-issue series Contest of Champions from 1982. It's not a fantastic story but it still holds a special place in my heart and a special place in the history of comics -- not only was it the first massive cross-series story (predating Secret Wars and Crisis) but it also laid the groundwork for the Official Handbook that came soon after.



Anyway, the premise is that the Grandmaster and an unknown opponent decide to each recruit twelve heroes and pit them against each other in a race to obtain four quarters of a golden globe scattered around the world. Though it was fun reading the comic again, I'm a bit confused by the selection process used.

Nevermind the unspoken diversity quota that required each team to have several heroes from other nationalities (Shamrock? Arabian Knight? Le Peregrine?). What really seems stupid is that, given all the heroes of the Marvel universe in 1982, these idiots would pick people like Iron Fist and Angel.

Guh?

As a longtime comic fan, I had my own, better list in mind. In keeping with the rules of the contests, only humans and mutants are eligible. That means NO Thor, NO Vision, NO Silver Surfer and NO Sub-Mariner. (Yes, he's a mutant but he's also an Atlantean, so he's out apparently.)

MY TEAM
The Thinkers: Dr. Strange, Prof. X, Mr. Fantastic
Sure, they can't lift Buicks or punch through mountains, but every team needs a little brain to go with its brawn. These three are each tops in their respective fields and should be able to handle any problem that doesn't require an immediate physical solution.

The Movers: Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, Spider-Man
Mobility seems like a big advantage in a contest like this so it seems you'd definitely want heroes who could get to inaccessible places in a big damn hurry. There aren't many heroes who could beat these three at that.

The Shakers: Colossus, The Thing, Sasquatch
At least the Grandmaster had the forethought to include a The Thing and Sasquatch on his team. (The strongest person on the Unknown's team is Invisible Woman.) It's not subtle, but sometimes you have to rely on brute force to solve your problems. These three have that in spades.

The Safeties: Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Iron Man
You can't predict what's going to happen when the fighting starts so you need a few heroes who can fill in the gaps. Each of these three heroes should be able to hold their own under a variety of circumstances.

Who could beat these twelve? No one, that's who. Better still, I managed to give slots to six non-Americans. Take that, Dr. Diversity!