Marvel

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Robert Downy, Jr. was definitely the MVP of the movie. (Photo courtesy JakesplacePS)”] [/caption] Readership assemble! Min and I made the great sacrifice of seeing The Avengers for you. Our verdict? It’s excellent. Go see it, y’all. Seriously. Movies The Avengers - It does precisely what I thought was impossible by focusing on each individual character for a bit and giving them all arcs. Granted, most of the groundwork was laid in all the other Marvel movies, but it’s still tough to do. High props to Mark Ruffalo for his portrayal of the Hulk. His barely contained anger was chilling and, most importantly, awesome. Joss Whedon’s writing also gels quite nicely with the movie, RDJ version of Iron Man. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=““Shit””] [/caption] It may look like I’m insulting Gears, but I’m really not. That’s legitimately the closest those guys come to eloquence most games. They’re fantastic games, but their stories are fundamentally idiotic. Movies Thor - I’m pretty sure that complaining about blatant product placement in a movie was last interesting five years ago, but I found the Southwest Airlines advertising in Thor to be too much. Did not like. The movie itself was cool, although Natalie Portman’s character had nothing to do but be a pretty damsel. Don’t get me wrong, she’s good at that, but I wouldn’t have minded her being more active (like Peggy in Captain America). Her portrayal of Jane was true to Thor: The Mighty Avenger, aside from her career, so at least there’s that. I hope she comes back for The Avengers (and that The Avengers is good). ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“The new Spider-Man is Miles Morales, a previously unseen character motivated to do good by Peter’s sacrifice…or so Marvel says. I’ve yet to read a story issue with him in it.”] [/caption] Movies Horrible Bosses - Part of me thought it was hilarious and part of me thought it was passable. There were some really strange story beats in this no doubt because this wasn’t the dark comedy it was advertised to be. I dunno what the proper word for it would be…dim comedy? Without implying that the comedy was stupid, I mean to say that Jennifer Aniston’s part in the story was treated completely differently than the two male bosses and was resolved in a way that felt tacked on. Decent movie, just not the funniest thing I saw this summer (:cough: Bridesmaids :cough:) ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“402” caption=“My favorite cosplay from the con”] [/caption] Otakon was this weekend, but my stolen camera prevented me from photographing any of the cosplay. The example above was taken by Eric. This week was comic book heavy. There was a huge sale at Eric’s shop that I took advantage of along with some Amazon orders to finish off small runs of series I was reading. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“375” caption=“San Diego Comic-Con is coming up this week, so I thought I’d make this week’s post some cosplay”] [/caption] San Diego Comic-Con is upon us and for once I actually read comics. I’m excited to learn about Marvel’s new December event, but, in the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to. Movies: Out of Sight - Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation was a pretty solid flick and about the only thing I’ve ever seen Jennifer Lopez do a fantastic job in. George Clooney turned in a great performance playing his usual role as well. Worth watching for their intriguing chemistry. Love noticing the similarities to other Leonard works like Justified (he loves him some US Marshals, huh?) ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“A performance from Tremé”] [/caption] Tomorrow night’s the All-Star Game, but my coverage might be a little different than usual. I plan on watching it with friends, so there may not be a liveblog, but I will cover it in the morning. In the meanwhile, here’s what I’ve been up to. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“Awesome alternate cover for USM #160”] [/caption] So…uh…yeah. (Ultimate) Peter Parker is dead. 160 issues, just under 11 years, and tons of stories later he is no more. Next month we’ll probably get his funeral with Ultimate Comics Fallout, which may go for a few issues, I don’t know, because there’s no set launch date for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (yes, they’re going back to that title), but what I’m most curious about is who the next Spider-Man is going to be. ...

Think you know about the Skrulls? Me neither. Comic Vine, a sister site to Giant Bomb, has this great 3-Minute Expert series that teaches you all you need to know about a comic book topic in…3 minutes.

Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen. There’s been a lot of news this week, so let’s get right down to it. The Xbox Live Summer of Arcade schedule has been announced and it looks like there are some great games coming soon. 22 July - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled - A 3D update of the classic arcade and SNES beat-em-up, this game could be fun, but then again, the 3D models just look so uninspired compared to the cartoon and their pixelated counterparts. ...

It was back in 2002 that Spider-Man paved the way for the new wave of comic book movies and, aside from a few Marvel mistakes (Hulk, Daredevil, Ghostrider), the genre has been continually evolving and, surprisingly, getting better. This past Friday saw the release of Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., and I’m happy to say that it easily falls within the top five best comic book movies I’ve ever seen. ...