Shocka! More Guitar Hero on the Way

We all knew that more Guitar Hero was on the way this year. But three more GH games this year? That's a little surprising. Two this spring, one this fall. Maybe a Guitar Hero: Metal Edition?

In the same conference call Activision announced there would be a sequel to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance this year as well. Personally, I'm thrilled. M:UA was a pretty good game that needed a coat of polish. For the life of me I can't understand why a major game based on Marvel characters would use such atrocious still art. Throw a few bucks a Jimenez, McNiven, Hitch, Skottie Young, Sal Larocca and Djurdjevic and let them do the art. And while you're at it, a better story wouldn't hurt either. I know it's a video game based on comics, but doesn't mean it has to be stupid.

The Hot List - Week of December 6th

Damn that's a lot of comics.
A lot of good comics too.
DC
52 Week #31
All-New Atom #6
Batman Confidential #1
Detective Comics #826
Exterminators #12
Jonah Hex #14
Justice Society Of America #1
Manhunter #26
Mystery In Space #4
Nightwing #127
Outsiders #43
Superman Confidential #2
Tranquility #1

Image
Invincible #37
Nightly News #2
Walking Dead #33

Marvel
Agents Of Atlas #5
Doctor Strange: The Oath #3
Incredible Hulk #101
Irredeemable Ant-Man #3
Marvel Holiday Special 2006
newuniversal #1
Uncanny X-Men #481

I'm burnt out on Batman: Year One stories, but I'm still going to give Batman: Confidential a look, but it's on a short leash/

No exaggeration, Justice Society of America may be my most anticipated title this year. It feels like I've been waiting for it for years.

Manhunter returns with a lot of DC's marketing muscle behind it and about as much support from the creative community as any major label book ever. Will it be enough? I hope so.

By popular acclimation I'm picking up Nightly News. I'm still not sure what it's about.

newuniversal is the kind of major label work Warren Ellis was made for. A blank slate, realistic world with lots of super science. The 'no capital letters in the title' thing is still stupid, though.

Review Time - Week of November 29th

Teen Titans #41 - Ok so Jericho is back. Good thing? Maybe, but thats another hero-gone-bad and brought back. I complained when Johns resurrected all of the Green Lanterns Hal Jordan killed, and I'm going to complain now that Jericho has been made a White Hat again. He killed, or tried to kill, the rest of the Titans; now apparently it wasn't Jericho's fault since the 'souls of Azerath' drove him mad and made him do it. It just seems like whitewashing to me. Other than that is was a meh issue. The art was mediocre on some pages and bad on others. I understand that Tony Daniel can't pencil 12 issues a year, but this 5 issue arc had 4 different pencillers. Not good planning on DC's part.

Ultimate Power #2 - I was wrong. I expected this issue to be a re-hash of #1 but from the Squadron Supreme's POV. Instead we get a full-on brawl between the Squadron and FF, with the X-Men, Spidey and the Ultimates jumping in later. The battle itself was a little too busy, with some of the players just there. But the parts of the fight that were fleshed out were a lot of fun. The art is typical Greg Land; pretty but kind of vapid. The Powers that Be at Marvel promise that this series will have a lasting impact on both universes so maybe the whole 'our world was destroyed' thing will actually stick. (Which would be a nice nod to the original Squadron Supreme series)

Heroes vs. Lost

Now I love both shows, a lot. But last night's episode of Heroes illustrated a big difference between it and Lost.

For the first few episodes of both shows a whole truckload of mysteries were introduced. 55+ episodes into it's run and Lost still hasn't answered the vast majority of those questions, while still shoveling new questions onto the pile. But last night Heroes actually went out and answered a lot of the mysteries they had spent the previous nine episodes laying out.

We know who Sylar is. We know how Eden hooked up with Clare's father. We know how Nathan Petrelli's wife was crippled. We know a little more about the whole Nikki/Jessica situation.

Were all of the mysteries solved? No, but they cleared the field enough to keep things workable. Lost, as much as I love it, just keeps shoveling new mysteries onto the massive pile of unsolved ones. (sidenote - a great list of the 50 biggest Lost questions can be found here) Tim Kring and crew looked at that great, steaming pile of questions and saw an impediment to the average viewer.

So, to abuse a metaphor, Heroes is the sidewalk that gets shoveled regularly during the winter, you still see the snow but it doesn't impede your progress. While Lost is the monstrous mountain of snow sitting in the mall parking lot that will probably still be there in April.

Emma Frost Statue

Hot damn.

Part of me wants this, badly.

Part of me also realizes that some people may get the wrong idea if something like that was displayed too prominently.

And part can only think "Damn, that's hot."

The Hot List - Week of November 29th

DC
52 Week #30
Aquaman Sword Of Atlantis #46
Batman #659
Batman The Spirit
Green Lantern #15
Guy Gardner Collateral Damage #1
Ion #8
Superman Batman #30
Teen Titans #41

Marvel
Captain America #24
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14
Immortal Iron Fist #1
Nextwave Agents Of HATE #10
Ultimate Power #2
X-Men #193

DC is releasing three Green Lantern books (four if you count the GLs in Batman/Superman), four chronically late books on time and a Batman - Spirit crossover that I swear was announced during the Clinton administration.

Nextwave is up to 10 already? Time really does fly.

I'm not a huge Iron Fist fan, but with Brubaker and Fraction writing it I have to at least give it a shot.

A Trilogy of Sumrfs Movies !?!

What. The. F&%k.

I know every studio wants a big animated flick. Every studio also wants the next epic franchise. But what sane person thinks you can have both of those together in The Smurfs? Smurfs was the first show I outgrew. It is about as mindless as a cartoon can get. Yet somebody thinks that it wouldn't just make a hit animated movie, but it would also be the cornerstone of a Lord of the Rings-like franchise.

Oh God my brain just exploded.

This is the kind of idea they should be using for the next season of Entourage. It has to be a joke. Nobody, nobody, could think making a movie about those little commies is a good idea.

Review Time - Week of November 22st

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #5 - I still like this series but damn it's starting to get repetitive. How many times have the Freedom Fighters had their heads handed to them only to be saved at the last moment by a prospective new member. Acuna's are is also becoming really inconsistent. Some panels and pages look awesome, others look horribly rushed.

Runaways #22 - No I don't think BKV is really going to go there with Chase and Nico, but just for a moment I did, so that last panel did it's job. And how can you not love a book that contains this picture.

(Pirate Werewolves, although Molly calls them Werewoofs)

Punisher War Journal #1 - This may be a sign of the apocalypse. I read a Punisher book, and I liked it. When I was a comic readin' kid I was pretty much the only one of my peers that didn't love The Punisher. But some friends comvinced me to pick this one up more for Matt Fraction that Frank Castle. I'm glad I did, because for the first time ever The Punisher was fun. Yeah he's still a violent ass but now he has a humorous internal monologue and gets attacked by a swarm of tiny Iron Man robots. Punisher purists will probably hate the book, but that's why Marvel still publishes Punisher MAX.

Random Musings - Influenza Edition

I hate being sick on holidays. You just cannot enjoy Thanksgiving while howrking up a lung.

On Heroes they Saved the Cheerleader but how did they Save the World?

Gears of War kicks unbelievable amounts of ass. On- and off-line.

I can't decide whether the people getting trampled at 5am outside of a Wal-Mart on Black Friday is funny or sad. Probably funny.

Stories are surfacing that Sony shipped fewer than 180,000 Playstation 3s at launch. Ouch.

Okay I have to go take some Nyquil. Why the hell am I blogging when doped up on cough medicine anyway>