Thursday, January 29, 2015

So, Who Would Win?: Apocalypse Vs. Kang The Conqueror

TGIT Bitches!!!!

So as you may have surmissed from the title above, for this week's edition of So, Who Would Win?, I'm pitting two major villains from their respective groups against each other.

Yeah I know, I must really love using Kang right?

I guess I must, seeing as how this'll be his record-making 4th appearence in this particular feature.
I've previously matched him up against Dr. Who, Ultron, and recently, Booster Gold.

But I set this one up mainly out curiousity.

Basically you have two forces of nature that have proven to be extremely long-lived; Apocalypse because he's basically an immortal mutant(albiet with the help of his handy-dandy regeneration chamber) and Kang due to his master manipulation of the time stream.

Another thing they seem to have in common, is a facination with ancient Egypt.

Apocalypse moreso, since that's where he came from, and then Kang because he once famously traveled to ancient Egypt, where he created and assumed the King Rama Tut persona....




.....and fought the Fantastic Four.


I'm not 100% sure if Apocalypse ever met Kang as King Rama Tut back in the day, but surely he had to hahve heard of him.

I think it's time they met and faced off in an interesting game of oneupmans-ship. Don't you?

So.......

Apocalypse








VS.

Kang The Conqueror








Who Wins, and Why?

As always, leave me your best guesses and stragies in the comments' section.

Who watched Arrow last night?










Damn, was that a hell of an episode or what?
Lots of questions answered,  Laurel in action, a further sneak peak at the Atom becoming reality, and the tease for next week.....Ollie's homecoming.

I can't fucking wait for next week....

That's me for this week, have a good one people.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Some Thoughts About Secret Wars, Divergence And What It All Means...

Happy Hump Day People!




Today I was going to take a brief few minutes to talk about the upcoming Secret Wars/Soft reboot of the MU, and where I stand on the issue. I figured I'd express my views on it, and whether or not I felt it'll benefit Marvel fans in the long run.

I was even going to explain that it really comes down to two main and often times conflicting views on what's best and entertaning;
The Publisher/Company/Corporate view and the Fan's view.

But the more I thought about it, the more I had a hard time not playing devil's advocate, and taking Marvel's side.

Let me explain.

I can see where Marvel(now owned by Disney) has a responsibility both to Disney and it's shareholders to continue to market and make as much revenue as posible to make them happy. It just comes with the territory.

That's why we see the never-ending cycle of events and mini-events continue to occur. They sell, despite the many protests of fans, especially the older one like myself.




That's in large part because the days of un-decompressed storytelling and allowing titles and characters to breath betwteen mega events is by and large, over. Done.


You can probably blame today's society's obession with sound bytes and a general short attention span for that, since more and more generations of people are being conditioned to only take the time out to read and process shorter and shorter bits of information.

Hey, I have to concede that I find myself sometimes feeling that way too, unless I'm super into the subject/topic matter.

All that being said, the writers, editors, creators' main job is to sell to as many people as they can, all of these events they cook up.

Much like papa Stan Lee, they have to shill them all as life-changing, earth-shattering events and promise that "Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again!".

But we all know that's never the case.

Every time they replace characters like Thor, Cap, or IM, they wind up evitably bringing them back, and restoring the status quo.
That's just a fact because while we all want change and something new and exciting, but we also want our classic heroes to relatively stay the same.

And they do.

That's the major problem with publishing comic characters for 70 years.
You eventually run out of fresh things to do to them.

Then there's the fact that comic fans have been maintaining interest longer than they used to.
Legendary Comic Editor Julie Swartz famouslty said that "Comic fans only stick around for three years."

Well not aymore, and because of that, such issues such as continuity and the like have become both huge and necessary albatrosess around the necks of publishers of the big two.

Lets be honest here, we the fans are not 100% blameless here.
We can bitch and whine, and threaten, but when it really comes time to put our money where our opinions are, most of us simply punk out.

You want to hurt an organization that makes it's living of selling products on a consistant basis,
STOP BUYING THE PRODUCTS!!!!

That's how you make a statement. By voting with your wallet, because basically it all comes down to money. That's what makes the world go around.













My point is that fans, by and large, are fickle. Very fickle.
They say they're outraged one minute, but act a totally different way the next. It's that indeciviness that ultimately hurts their cause when it comes to legitimately gripping about the poor decisions these companies and creative teams make.














Now that's not to say I'm doing an about face, or changing my positions on my hate and dislike for Didio and people just like him(which Tom Brevroot is dangerously close to becoming).

Fuck no!

In fact if anything, this upcoming event, along with the DC's Convergance, further illustrates what's currently wrong with the line of thinking in regards to the non-stop events.

On DC's end, Didio lies non-stop, claiming that certain events and storylines "were always planned that way", when we all know what bullshit that is.

Marvel's Tom Brevoort does the same thing.

Times like this, you'd wish both sides would just be more open and honest with their fans.
It's simply showing respect to your customers, and that should never be a bad thing.

As I understand it, Converance was born as a distraction, something to help fill the time, a placeholder in the marketplace while DC undergoes the big move west to California.

And despite all the nostalgia that they'll be rolling out and pushing hard, in the end it won't mean a thing.

That is to say, the NU52 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's here to stay, but to pander to the older      audience they've by and large (intentionallly?) driven away, they offer one last look at your childhood heroes before locking them up and sealing them away forever.

So basically, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Nice to know right?

Secret Wars on the otherhand actually does matter in the sense that by the time it rolls around, the Marvel Universe as you've known it since 1961 will no longer exist.


Yep, that's right. In case you haven't already heard, the universe that Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and countless others built, is dead.

Don't believe me?
Here's the truth directly for the horse's ass' mouth:

“Once we hit Secret Wars #1, there is no Marvel Universe, Ultimate Universe, or any other. It’s all Battleworld,”[Executive Editor Tom] Brevoort said.
“The Marvel Universe will be Battleworld, and every single piece of those worlds will be building blocks for the universe,” said Alonso, adding that all the universes represented in “Battleworld” will have “legs” moving forward.
“…We are taking the best and biggest pieces of [Marvel history] and seeing how easily they coexist with one another,” Alonso said in answer to a press question about this being a ‘reboot.’ “We don’t expect all our moves to make everyone happy, but we think it will make for a really fascinating read through Secret Wars and beyond.”
  This is pretty much as bold a move as Marvel's ever made since it's inception more than 50 years.
Now I'll be honest.

Initial impression?
The concept sounds cool and exciting enough. After all, all of your favorite alternate and What If? universes will be represented in a re-imagined Battleworld, where they get to duke it Battle Royal-style for survival.

But then what? What's the main motivation behind doing all this? What's so broken(besides time apparently) that the current regime at Marvel feels the need to do something this drastic?

Hasn't the Marvel Now initiative been financially successful enough?















In any event, despite how much this move reeks of being just like CRISIS, the new MU going forward will be a mash-up of hand-picked characters from each alternative historical universe. A Greatest Hits/Dream Team thing of you will.

But yet  the entire history of the MU still remains?
Yeah doesn't make sense to me either. 
As always, we shall see.....

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

"Decisions, Decisions"

This one's dedicated to all of us that have and/or had to buy heatlth insurance.
You guys know the struggle.










The End.

Oh no kidding right? I imagine since its very hard for a regular joe to figure out and find the best opton for insurance, exactly how much harder is it for henchemen?
Do they even have unions? Probably not.

Looks like Hydra's becoming massively popular lately, what with a hole Avengers special and multpile appearences in other mediums like the movies and tv shows.
I guess its never been better than now to be a member of Hydra.

So Hail Hydra kids;)

Monday, January 26, 2015

True Story: The Many Affiliations Of Luke Cage

What's up people?

Who's up for another installment of True Story?












The End

Extras:




Liked the man said, don't trip. You know you liked it;)

Hey who watched Arrow last week?
Pretty solid show, and Black Canary#2 officially debuted. Very interesting to see what happens to her from here on out.


 I also thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the season American Horror Story season finale.
Way, way better than the Coven season I thought.
Very satisified with how it ended, wrapping up everyone's story nicely.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

So, Who Would Win?: Green Lantern(Hal Jordan) Vs. Nova(Rich Rider)

TGIT!!!!


Who's up for some So, Who Would Win?
Excellent.


Here's one for the ages, as I pit the Green Lantern against Nova.

We all know Hal's deal and powers.



















Nova too, especially the Richard Rider version.

A conclusive fight between these two has long, long been in order.



After all, Marvel "borrowed" the concept of an entire police force based around a popular franchise hero from Green Lantern....who in turn also "borrowed"  said concept from the earlier science ficton writings of author Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith's Lensmen.



So.....


Green Lantern(Hal Jordan)














VS.


Nova(Richard Rider)






Who Wins and Why?

Tell me who you thinks wins out in this cosmic classic clash.
Say that drunk or sober three times fast;)



"Closing time. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."

Well..... I kinda always knew this day would come, and it sure has. It's been a hell of a ride, but it's time to for it end. Ti...