Random Crap

It's April. A time when a young man's thoughts turn to love and an anthropomorphic rabbit hides colored eggs around a house and gives baskets of candy and other goodies to children. For me April always means the anniversary of the first online edition of The Collector Times. I have been writing for this online magazine for lord knows how long. I know that I missed a year (2003) because I was in beauty school, but I know I have been writing for this site for at least 10 years in some capacity.

An Icon Dead at 82

On March 3 the legendary artist and the man who set the standard for the look of the original Star Wars trilogy died at the age of 82. That man was Ralph McQuarrie. I don't know what to say other than he was the man I most wanted to emulate in my art. I mean, look at this: The look of the Tuskin Raiders in this art is pretty much spot on for what appeared in the movie except the small filter at the base of the neck. The Bantha's are also pretty close, but they are a bit on the thin side for what appeared in the movie. This also gives us a look at how barren Tatooine was supposed to be. I wanted to own some of his original art, but that was out of my price range. The closest I came was buying the The Empire Strikes Back Portfolio last year. I had intended to have the pictures framed, but I cannot afford that yet. I'll take it out every now and then to remind myself that I will get as good as that. I'll never be him, but one day I could be as good as Ralph McQuarrie. Here's a link to the Star Wars web site with an official statement from George Lucas about McQuarrie's passing and a slide show of some of the concept artwork he did for the three movies. I did not know that he won an Oscar for the special effects in the 1985 movie Cocoon. He will be sorely missed by everyone in the Star Wars community.

How is it?

This link is to a brief article on the Bleeding Cool web site that talks about how one of the characters in the latest Archie comic book has Breast Cancer and it is really taking its toll on her. As someone whose mother has had Breast Cancer (they caught it early) and whose grandmother died from Breast Cancer that metastasized to her lungs; this sort of thing can be tough not only on the person with cancer, but also on their family. I know that the folks at Archie will not gloss over this with some sort of happy cheerful message like most comics aimed at kids would. How is it that Archie Comics are ahead of the comic book curve with real life issues rather than the big two? Between the Interracial Gay Marriage, the Occupy Movement and now one of the characters has Breast Cancer I tell you that the kids who read Archie comics are going to be well ahead socially than I was at their age. I had no idea what Cancer was until I got older and back when I was a kid it was unheard of to have something like that in a comic. I think the biggest thing that was going on when I was a kid was the could he or could he not be homosexual character "Pied Piper" in the Flash Comics from the 80's or earlier. I did not know he was gay until I was reading the weekly series 52 back a few years ago when he and the new Trickster were cuffed together. I wanted to see how that plot point turned out, but I think I got maybe a third of the way through before I stopped reading because there was so much other stuff on my plate. I'm thinking about getting the 52 trades from a used book store if I ever find them, just to read them and catch up on what I missed. I think they had the potential for a good buddy villain comic if they kept those two together. Not handcuffed mind you but as partners in crime. DC, make that happen. Oh wait, you are too involved in the New 52 to do something like that. Plus you have only introduced one of The Flash's old Rogues Gallery so far, Captain Cold, in the New 52 so I guess that cannot happen yet.

Thinking Twice

This link from the Bleeding Cool web site says that there are well over 200,000 issues pre-ordered of the first issue of The Avenger versus The X-Men crossover event that is Marvel's next big thing. This is supposed to be higher than the pre-orders for DC's Justice League #1 from the New 52. Personally I hope that this turns out like the X-Men #1 debacle that happened back in the early 1990's. Back then Marvel had printed up enough copies of the new X-Men #1 for everyone who shopped at a comic book store to own at least 15 copies of the book. This left comic book stores with a bunch of stock that they had over-ordered and drove some stores out of business. You can probably even find copies of it in the $0.50 boxes of stuff that might be good for a laugh at a convention. They would have been quarter boxes, but inflation and all that jazz. I think that those stores that have seen their way though that time and come out stronger are taking a long hard look at this and the incentives that are offered to shops and ordering accordingly.

Marvel's Latest Gimmick

Marvel Comics latest gimmick besides "A versus X" which is supposed to be their next big thing to compete with DC's "New 52" is this cryptic picture that showed up on their web site and was run with by a couple of them that I go to. Here's the picture for those interested:   It is asking us to save the date (well not the date, just month and year) along with Astonishing X-Men #51. Generally when someone asks you to save a date it generally means that there is a wedding in the future. That sure looks like what this is asking us for considering the font and color scheme. Rumors are flying about who it might be. One place says it could be Northstar and his boyfriend, but I don't think they would want to be riding on the coat tales of Archie Comics' gay marriage issue back in March. I have not kept up with the X-Books in a long time nor do I intend to start now. I'm going to take an educated guess and say that it might be Rogue and Gambit. Those two have finally consummated their relationship recently and it just seems like they might just throw those two together after fans have been wanting it for so long. Given the color scheme, which I may just be reading too much into, it could be Iceman and someone he loves. Again I state that I have not kept up with the X-Books in a long time so Iceman may not be in the Astonishing X-Men and I will look like a fool. Isn't this going to be taking place during the "Avengers versus X-Men" thing going on in the summer? As far as I know yes, and that could mean a bunch of stuff might happen at the wedding.

Quick Hit #1

Right now I'd hate to be reading non-licensed Marvel comics because it just seems like Norman Osborn is bound to take over yet again after the events in Fear Itself. Someone do us all a favor and kill Norman Osborn in the comics. Not ironically at the hands of Spider-Man, but by someone really unexpected like The Power Pack or Squirrel Girl. It seems like he went from wanting to ruin Spider-Man's life back in the Brand New Day storyline in Amazing Spider-Man to taking over the United States through the Thunderbolts and now he's gone completely bat-poop crazy and thinks he can take out the Avengers. It's times like these that I am glad I quit reading Marvel Comics and just went to DC, Dark Horse and Image.

Quick Hit #2

I don't like the new look for Carol Danvers that Marvel is using for the new Captain Marvel comic that is due out soon. When I saw it, at first I thought of the old Flash Gordon comics that were in the books I would check out from the local library, and how much she looked like Flash Gordon. After seeing her as Marvel Girl for so long with the long flowing blonde hair and costume that looked like a one-piece bathing suit; seeing this new version of her just does not make me want to go out and buy the comic or put it on my pull list. I had this same reaction when they made over Songbird in The Thunderbolts at about this time last year or two years ago. The promotional image they are using that is shown here on Bleeding Cool is a rip off of the 1940's Rosie the Riveter down to the pose and look on the face. There's also been talk of her looking similar to Marvelwoman/Miraclewoman, but I cannot comment on those other than I can see some matches, but not enough to say that one is the other. Here's a follow up to the link above with more information on what the comic is going to be like. Their description does not make me want to go out and buy the book any more, but it does explain the reason for the new look. It also says Captain Marvel (2013) in some of the pictures at the link so this may not be coming out until after this whole A versus X thing gets resolved.

Dear Michael Bay,

Quit taking licenses from the 1980's and 1990's and turning them on their ear. You have already ruined an entire generation of new fans of The Transformers through your craptacular movies, and now you are about to do the same for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by making them aliens rather than Mutated Turtles. Where did I get this information? This link right here that has the video of man talking about it in his own words. While I did enjoy the original movies you did like The Rock and Armageddon you are not winning me over to your side of movies by taking licenses of things that I enjoyed when I was younger and trying to Bay them up. If something is not broke, then why try to fix it. I can understand wanting to improve upon it like George Lucas did with the original Star Wars trilogy back in the late 90's, but to blow up a major franchise and start again just seems kind of silly. Update: It looks like Bay is trying to extinguish the fires that popped up on the internet about his announcement. He says that everyone needs to "take a deep breath and chill." Well, Michel Bay, I would chill out if you would clarify what you are going to do to the Ninja Turtles franchise instead of speaking in vagaries. I don't think you are going to put out the fires of hate for you on the internet by telling everyone to "chill." You are only the producer of the movie anyway and probably have very little say-so in the whole production of the movie.

I'm Going to Lose my Geek Card

I'm going to lose my geek card by saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway. HeroClix is just not the right super hero miniatures game. There's just too much of a lag between sets and by the time that they get a Marvel or DC set out based on the big event that they did, the next event is already taking place. They had the weekly DC Trinity threesome of miniatures in the Brave and the Bold and DC 75th sets even though Trinity had come out what two or three years before that? I would know this for sure except that I stopped collecting them about a quarter of the way through it and really did not care what happened. There was also a money issue mucking things up and $12-$15 a month on one book just seemed like a bit much to me. Then there is the whole thing with constantly shifting allegiances of characters. WizKids released a Juggernaut miniature in their Giant Sized X-Men set and he had every keyword except one, Thunderbolts. When they released this set, Juggernaut was still with the team and had not yet been taken over by the Power Hammer (or whatever they called them) that destroyed half of The Raft when it fell to Earth. They have also not done Thunderbolts miniatures for the likes of Troll or Man Thing so that is just shoddy work. Finally there is the whole thing with the power sets the miniatures have. Everyone complains when a new set comes out that a certain character is not the definitive version of that character because they do not have all the powers that that character in the comics has. The biggest complaints are from Superman and Spider-Man fans because they say Superman needs Impervious all the way down his dial while the Spider-Man fans say that he needs super senses all the way down his dial. While I understand that you can only get so many powers on a miniature for characters like Superman while keeping them costing (in points) a reasonable amount. At this point I have given up on ever having to play or buy the game again because WizKids is always going to botch something and just make whatever they feel like on each character. I know they try their best to get the best miniatures out for your money, but when you miss things like I mentioned above then that is just sloppy and you don't deserve my money.

Mass Effect 3

I don't keep up with console gaming all that much, but it looks like the company that made the Mass Effect trilogy of games has made some people very upset at the end of the series. Not because the series has ended mind you, but because the way it ended. The last game that I played with any regularity was the original Gears of War and I have not even got three hours into that game, and that was over a year ago when I played it last. I'm not going to make this next part a spoiler because if you keep track of any message boards about the game then you know what is going on or have already beaten the game three times already to see the three results. It looks like no matter what you choose for the main character to do at the end of the last game the universe ends. Everything that you invested over the past five years in playing the games is taken out, by writing that seems to rub your face in the fact that this is the biggest screwjob finish since the Montreal Screwjob that happened to Bret Hart in the WWE back in the 90's. I mean, no matter what you do, you are stuck with the same ending. That just seems to me that this was a rush, tacked on ending and they really did not know how the game was going to end in the beginning of the whole process. It's not unheard of to make some downloadable content (DLC) patches available for games that change the ending. They did it for Fallout 3 and the company that makes the Mass Effect series of games can do the same thing if they wanted. Bioware has made missteps all along the way with the release of Mass Effect 3 from having DLC of a major character and other things cost $10 at launch (or free with the deluxe version of the game) to the ending of the entire trilogy of games in the way that they did is not endearing me to their other games like Star Wars: the Old Republic. That, while an MMO, could have the same kind of thinking of an ending as Mass Effect 3. I know I've wanted a Star Wars MMO for a real long time (about since the time I played World of Warcraft for the first time), but I wanted it set more in the time of the movies rather than the time of the Old Republic. Yes, they had Star Wars Galaxies out years ago, but that was not much of an MMO to start with.

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