The Week In Geek - 11/30/08

This week on Geek-tastic, we learned the following:

 

• Geeks can pull off some great pranks.


• Pie charts always make me think of Pac-man.


• If you ever find yourself aboard the starship Enterprise, never ever wear a red shirt.


• Geeks can manage to make anything and everything geeky...even Thanksgiving.


• You're screwed up family is nothing compared to some sci-fi families.


• The newly edited Star Trek Trailer is chock full of Spocky goodness.


• Board games have been around for a long, long time.

Bruce Lee Was The Most Badass Person Of All Time

 

 

Just how badass was he?  He could play ping pong...with nunchuks. 

 

Of course, the above video itself is an ad for a phone, and it's undoubtedly fake, but that doesn't stop it from still being a truly badass bit of video awesomeness.

 

(Via Geekologie)

Mattman’s Weekly Batman Update.

This week in Batman has made me think of young Mattman and how he would react to certain things. Most particularly, teenage Mattman. Teenage Mattman to be quite honest with you all was Mattman at his most hardcore Comic Book Fandom. But also teenage Mattman was Mattman at his most unforgiving. Nothing in the world was good enough for teenage Mattman. Of course he was 17 roughly when (the worst film of all time) Batman and Robin was released and he had to contend with that major upset that it took 8 years for the cinematic Caped Crusader to finally recover from with the release of Batman Begins (a film that not only made the memory of Batman and Robin finally wash away but also made even the original and still beloved Tim Burton film look juvenile in comparison). But this teenage Mattman was relentless. He would forgive nothing except complete perfection in all things geek, especially his beloved Batman. "Kelly Jones drew the ears too long!" or "Batman would never wear laser refractive armor!"

Recently in the past few years I have found myself more relaxed in my acceptance of things. In fact certain things I once would have been violently opposed to I find myself sometimes loving. Is this growing up? Does this make me any less a nerd? Sometimes it really makes me feel that way. I often feel alienated from others because I'm not as cold and unforgiving as they are when it comes time to be critical of geek media. At my fathers house this Thanksgiving I turned on his HDTV and was looking through the HD channels for some cheap entertainment. I saw that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was on. I knew that the fellow geeks had ripped it a new one but I had not seen it so I decided to give it a shot. Now Fantastic Four has never been Shakespeare even their greatest comics are cheesy as fuck. So I find that even if Christopher Nolan himself were to direct a Fantastic Four movie there is no way it could come off as anything but ridiculous. But the modern day Mattman loves things for their cheesy-ness. I watched that movie and found that it was actually kinda decent. Then on another HD channel I found Spider-Man 3 was playing. So we watched that. Spider-Man has always been one of my dad's favorites. He loves Spider-Man 3. I really enjoyed it also. And in watching it the other day it only re-afirmed my love for it. I honestly don't know any other geeks out there that did enjoy it. In fact I feel that the film has been crucified by the nerd community overwhelmingly. I will admit there were certain things that the film got wrong but there were so many things that the film knocked out of the park for me. I feel that the film on a whole was slightly disappointing but overall very enjoyable.

But I wonder would teenage Mattman feel the same? would he be as forgiving? Is that a bad thing or a good thing? I watched the latest episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold last night on my DVR and I had a nerd orgasm of love for it. But the whole time I was laughing on the inside. I was laughing because I knew teenage Mattman would have hated this show. It is made for children, so it is childish. The Batman acts more like Adam West. The show is drawn in a Jack Kirby style, with 60's style music and a 60's style cheesy-ness. But the Batman they depict is just as cool as the Dark Knight Returns or Hush Batman. I love him just as much as I love the Christian Bale or Kevin Conroy depictions. I love him for his cool and his camp. In the Batman books I read this week I really liked certain things but was disappointed by others. Mostly I'm waiting for the stories to get to their damn point already. A major flaw in weekly reading, the patience factor.



Trinity #26

Writer: Kurt Busiek

Pencils: Mark Bagley

Back-up writers: Kurt Busiek and Fabian Niceza

Back-up pencils: Scott McDaniel

Wow! What a piece of shit. In both stories I had no idea what was going on or where any of this was leading. So I'm guessing we are still stuck in this alternate reality where there is no Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. But the characters they are choosing to focus on are boring and I don't altogether even understand what they are up to. The first story focuses on some Tarot card reading chick that is viewing the reality space-time continuum waves as they are attempting to repair reality itself and we get glimpses of different time periods from different realities, none of them featuring anybody your recognize or care about and all of them boring and confusing. Then in the back up feature we see Morgan Lee Fey talking to some dude Engima about the Trinity spell they casted and how they need their "third" to make things a reality. Enter this hulk like dude Graak. Only he's not the Hulk and he's not cool. We learn a lot about him but I've already forgotten it and I want to forget this comic altogether. Where, oh where is Batman?



Superman and Batman Vs. Vampires and Werewolves #4

Writer: Kevin VanHook

Pencils: Tom Mandrake

Now this is awesome. Just look at the freakin' title. Do I even need to review this? Batman and Superman are fighting VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES!!!!! Then Green Arrow shows up. What does he do? Shoots the vamps with WOODEN TIPPED ARROWS!!!! He brings Jason Blood with him (or maybe it's the other way around) to help with the whole vamps and wolves deal. We learn that some dude, Doctor Combs or whatever blah, blah, blah to make werewolves and vamps in Gotham. Blah, blah, blah, Then Jason Blood turns into Etrigan the Demon finally. Back to vamp and werewolves killing. To be continued and I can't wait!



Batman: Gotham After Midnight #7

Writer: Steve Niles

Pencils: Kelley Jones

Last week in my review I ripped on the artwork of Batman: Knightfall. I may just have to retract some of those statements now. Because one of the major artists of that crossover was the great Kelley Jones. Man his artwork is breath-taking and altogether other-worldly and unique like Sam Kieth or Mike Magnola. Honestly I don't think it is well-suited for core Batman titles but I would love to see it in mini-series and one-shots till the end of my days. This issue is all about Batman trying to find out who the killer Midnight is and why he is manipulating other villains in his scheme. Like the murder of a police detective in this issue and Killer Crocs involvement in it. The highlight of the issue for me is when Batman puts on his Kevlar Waterproof Bodysuit 65. The Teenage Mattman would have groaned at something like that happening in an issue of Batman. The armor costumes and such. Now I geek out at his countless costumes, gadgets and vehicles no matter how ridiculous. Well, for the most part.



Batman #681

Writer: Grant Morrison

Pencils: Tony Daniel

Here it is finally the conclusion to R.I.P. and I have to say I feel a little disappointed. Is the story bad? No. Is it the artwork? No. All the elements are beautiful and nearly flawless. The disappointment comes from the lack of a conclusion. Now I know that the final fate of Batman is supposed to be revealed in Final Crisis but I always thought that to mean that we would find out who was replacing him. I was convinced that the conclusion to R.I.P. would happen here, in R.I.P. But we don't find out what happens. Not even if Bruce retires or dies or if Black Glove is defeated or anything. Black Glove has a show down with Batman after he digs his way out of a coffin (they buried Batman alive) and Black Glove says blah, blah, blah "I am Thomas Wayne." Batman says blah, blah, blah "No you're not." Then the Helicopter they are both on explodes. Then we see Nightwing holding Batmans cape and cowl looking depressed like the explosion killed them both. Then we see Jezebel Jet on a airplane that gets attacked by tons of Man-Bat looking things. Then it flashed forward six months to show Black Glove thugs torturing some dude and gloating about how Batman and Robin are dead. Then we see a shadow of Batman (which one it is, I don't know) about to attack them. Then we see Batman's parents deaths again, for the billionth time. The End. Huh? What? Um, okay. That concluded and resolved nothing.

Tune in next week,

Same Matt-time

Same Matt-channel

Mattman

Rick Astley Is My Hero

 

 

Internet Memes are wonderful things.  They're usually obscure and odd jokes that start somewhere on a message board and become a huge internet fad.  Things like the LOL Catz and those motivational posters are perfect examples of what I'm talking about.  However, one meme has ruled them all for a long time.  I speak of course of the Rick Roll.

 

Admit it, you've been rick rolled before.  We all have.  It gets us all eventually, there's no stopping it.You innocently click on a youtube clip to watch something else, and five second in you find yourself watching a young Rick Astley dancing in an all denim outfit.

 

And I must give massive credit to Mr. Astley for being a really good sport about it.  Besides the fact that the phenomenon sort of mocks his old video, he's taken the entire thing in stride and thinks it's all good fun.  So much so that he has now even made a personal appearance during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to Rick Roll the entire event!

 

Rick Astley, you are my hero for today!

14 Geeky Reasons To Be Grateful This Thanksgiving

 

Wired writer Lewis Wallace has posted up an excellent list called 14 Reasons to be Grateful This Thanksgiving, and it is truly Geek-tastic.  Filled with a ton of Geeky cool things to be thankful for, this list has definitely reminded me how lucky we are to be geeks right now.  We rule TV and Movies, it's hip to be geek.

 

Everything from Cinematic Titanic to Hellboy II can be found on the list.  But my favorite was to see Avatar: The Last Airbender included on the list.  I honestly can't talk highly enough about that show.  It's the best damn Animated series I've seen in a long time.  If you don't believe me, just check out this Frakking Awesome Trailer for the show's third season.

 

This mash of anime, martial arts, mythology, philosophy, environmentalism and geopolitics was the smartest children's show to ever hit television.  Action-packed and enlightened, the show also enraptured millions of adults before ending its Nickelodeon run in July.

 

So be thankful out there my fellow geeks.  This has been an excellent year for us.  And next year looks like it'll be even better.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Wednesday Wes Rant - The Black Cauldron

Ah Disney, your thieving ways throughout the years, how sneaky they are. I'm not 100% sure how it worked out for the author of THIS AMAZING BOOK RIGHT HERE when it was given the Disney once over. In 1984 Disney released a movie called the Black Cauldron (WIKI) and to be honest it was freaking AWESOME. So awesome in fact Disney denied even making it for years and years after pulling it from theaters only showing it for a VERY limited time (urban myth ranges from one month to one week).

 



 

I remember scrounging comic cons with my high school friend as she asked after ANY sort of merchandise from the Black Cauldron. The responses went from polite a polite "good luck with that hun" to the outright laugh in the face or "are you kidding me?". When I finally managed to scrounge a VHS bootleg it was SO worth it. This was a DISNEY MOVIE about a bad guy collecting dead bodies to form an army! I could've squealed when I saw it!

 

Then years later I was introduced to the concept that there was in fact a book that the movie was based on and that I had been given the Disney version of the story. WHAT THE F-CK?!

 



 

I'm not going to lie, I don't own this book, but I will tomorrow I SWEAR to you. Writing this article has forced me to remember that this book kind of kicked a ton of ASS. Seriously, as with everything else, they only used a tiny weight watchers sliver slice of what was in the book the black cauldron for the movie, and even better that, it's one book of an ENTIRE SERIES!!! Do I really have to sell this to you? It has an evil guy, making an ARMY OF THE DEAD by STEALING CORPSES and sticking them into the cauldron to RE-ANIMATE THEM, now go buy!

 

I don't understand for an instant why the books aren't sold as a set on Amazon, but the individual books are cheap used on Amazon. Oh jeez and here I am excited about re-reading these soon. Hell, it might even make me feel better since I've been reading Nietzsche lately and I could use a pick-me-up.

 

Also, Matt, WOW that's a mouthfull. I love you Bro.

Let's Go Killing People In Disney's Haunted Mansion

 

Somebody with way too much free time on their hands has done something incredibly awesome.  Using the game Counterstrike, they hacked together a map that is an almost perfect replica of Disney's Haunted Mansion.  It even includes sound effects from the ride.  Check out the video and be amazed at how good it is.

 

This got me thinking though.  How absolutely rad would an FPS game be that was based inside the park at Disneyland?  Think about it.  The entire park would be a map in which you can wander around and kill people.  And if the map included all of the backstage areas and underground tunnels, that would be even cooler.

 

Just think about how much fun you could have running down Main Street and shooting people in the stores.  Or maybe you'd prefer to snipe at people from the top of the Matterhorn, or you could hide in the darkness of Space Mountain and wait for foolish people to come looking for you.  You could even get into a firefight at the Blue Bayou and go running for safety into the tunnels that house Pirates of the Caribbean.

 

It would be glorious.  I can't believe no one has ever thought of this before.  Why do I always have to think of the cool stuff?  If any programmers are out there listening to this, pleas...make this game.  It would be a huge online hit.  I'm not the only person who would want to go throwing grenades around inside It's A Small World.  Trust me.

 

(Via BoingBoing, and thanks go to my friend Michael for sharing this on his Google Reader feed)

Wolverine Does His Best Blue Steel Look

 

A rather ripped and pointy haired Hugh Jackman will be gracing the cover of next month's Empire magazine as part of their in-depth look at the forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine film.

 

While I think the cover looks pretty rad, I can't help but be thoroughly amused at Jackman's almost dead on copy of Derek Zoolander's only look...Blue Steel!

 

This just begs the question, could Wolverine pull off Magnum?  I doubt it.  Only one man is talented enough to pull off Magnum, and it's certainly not Logan.

 

(Via ScreenRant)

Five Centuries Of Board Games

 

 

If you happen to be of the belief that board games didn't exist until the advent of games like Monopoly or Risk, you are mistaken...sadly mistaken.  In fact, board games of various types have been around for centuries.  Gaming, as a passtime, has been around for hundreds of years with boards coming in all different sorts of shapes, sizes and play styles.

 

Bibliodyssey has a great gallery up with pictures of board games from over the last 500 years.  No, you won't find Clue or Sorry amongst the images, but you will see the above image from "The New and Enjoyable Game of the Goose" publised by Lucchino Gargano in 1598.  In the center of the board are the games rules.

 

Looking at the boards of the different games, I'm amazed at how little has changed in game design over the last few centuries.  The rectangle board, the curving spiral of spaces towards the center of the board.  There are still games today that look similar to this.

 

Also of note at the bottom of the gallery is a link to a 116 page article titled "The Development of the English Board Game, 1770 - 1850".  I haven't read the article yet, but I sure will be marking the page to come back to later.  As both a gamer and a history geek, the article sounds like it will be a pretty fun read.

 

(Via Mental_Floss)

Space...The Awesome Frontier

 

It's been a while since I've posted a bit of science news, and the above image was so pretty I had to share.  Taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the image shows some of the most massive stars in our Galaxy, as they've never been seen before.

 

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed two of the most massive stars in our galaxy as never before. Located 7,500 light years away from Earth in the Carina Nebula, these stars are rare ultra-hot, super-bright stars that emit primarily ultraviolet radiation, that gives them a blue hue.

 

WR25, the brightest of the stars near the center of the image, is actually a large star 50 times the size of our sun with another star half that size orbiting around it. To the upper left of WR25, the third brightest star in this image is really a triple star cluster. Two are so close together that telescopes with less resolution can't resolve them. The third star may take hundreds of thousands of years to orbit around them.

 

The second brightest star, to the left in the image, is actually a less massive star that appears bright because it is much closer to earth than the others.

 

(Via Wired)

The Star Trek Trailer - Now With 100% More Spocky Goodness

 

A slightly new version of the Star Trek movie trailer has made its way to the internets.  I say slightly because 98% of the trailer is the same stuff you saw in the awesome trailer last week.

 

The big news-worthy thing that has been added is at the very end of the trailer.  It's a shot of Leonard Nimoy as the original (and very old looking) Spock saying "Live long and prosper" as he throws up the Vulcan gang sign.

 

I'll admit it, I got a little nerd orgasm when I saw that.

And You Thought Your Family Was Screwed Up

One of the truly annoying things about the holidays is having to spend a large amount of time around one's family. Sure, some people have families that get along and treat each other with respect and with love. Most of us call those people strange though. The rest of us have families that are nominally dysfunctional at best. Whether it be the annoying uncle who gets drunk and tells you what he really thinks of your dad, the cousin who just got out of jail from the drug charges he spent time for or the mother who can't stop pestering you about when you're going to give her some grandchildren, at some point you're going to wonder why your family is so screwed up and why you can't have a normal life.

 

Well, feel better because things could be a lot worse. Just imagine how bad life would be if your parents were super scientists or superheroes or secret government agents. Having to sit through a boring turkey dinner with your cousins is nothing compared to having hitmen bust into the house during dinner or wild experiments down in the basement breaking loose leaving a trail of chaos in their wake.

 

To make you feel better about your family, IO9 has posted up a great list about Sci-fi's Most Dysfunctional Families.  In it you'll find examples of families so screwed up that they'll make you and your relatives look like the Brady Bunch by comparison.  Case in point, the Venture family from the TV show The Venture Brothers.

 

Rusty Venture is a walking dysfunction all on his lonesome. Unable to live up to his father’s impossible example, Rusty turned into a pill-popping, underachieving neurotic with a shaky moral center. And it doesn’t help that his brother JJ (who played Abel to Rusty’s Cain in the womb) is successful in the very areas where Rusty fails. Conversely, Rusty treats his own children with less than benign neglect, cloning replacements whenever they are killed (which is often) and leaving their emotional care to the ultra-violent, highly promiscuous spy Brock Samson.

 



  

And that's only one example.  Another great example of messed up families are the Petrellis from the once cool and now totally crappy show Heroes.  Talk about dysfunctional, not only are they finding long lost relatives every other day, but the dad was so concerned that his kids wouldn't have powers like he did that he had them injected with synthetic powers.  And that's just the beginning of their deeply rooted family problems.

  

 

The Petrellis are generally marked by three characteristics: they all have superpowers; they all have secret parents, siblings, or offspring; and they are constantly trying to kill one another. Claire shoots her uncle Peter. Peter shoots his brother Nathan. Patriarch Arthur plans to murder his son Nathan. And brothers Peter and Sylar are constantly trying to kill each other. Only matriarch Angela Petrelli (wife of Arthur and apparent mother of Nathan, Peter, and Sylar) stays out of the attempted murder racket, though she’s pulling most of the other family members’ strings.

 

The article has a number of other great examples of screwed up Sci-fi families, including shows like the X-Files, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and more, so be sure to check it out. 

 

And the next time your grandma scolds you for wasting your life playing video games and reading comics, or your aunt tells you you're a loser just like your brothers, remember that it could always be worse.  At least you aren't a Petrelli, be glad for that.

New Geek DVD Day - 11/25/08

It's a bit of a slow Geek DVD week.  There's not a lot out this week to really get excited about, but I did notice one thing that deserves recognition, although not in a good way.  So for this week I've added a new fourth selection called The Lame to go along with the usual Good, Badass and Awesome titles I selected.  I'd also like to apologize for the "Good" selection.  It's not really a good film per se, but it is geeky and animated, and I had nothing else to choose to go there this week, so that's what we're stuck with.

 



 

The Good:  Superman - Doomsday

 

Why It's Good:  As I said above, it's not really a good film.  It's actually kind of a crappy film, but it is Superman, and it is animated.  So if you're a fan of either Superman or animated superhero shows in general, then you'll probably like it just fine.  But be warned it's kind of a crappy movie and you'd be better off buying something like Justice League: New Frontier if you haven't gotten it already.

 



 

The Badass:  Hancock

 

Why It's Badass:  I'm a sucker for big budget Will Smith blockbuster films.  The man has a pretty good track record.  Independence Day, I Am Legend, Men In Black, I Robot, Bad Boys II (admit it, it's horribly awesome).  It really doesn't feel like summer to me unless there's some huge $100 million budget Will Smith movie in theaters.  This year's summer film was Hancock, the story of a drunken superhero who has to learn to shape himself up.  Will Smith playing a drunken sort of Superman?  I'm sold.

 



 

The Awesome:  A Colbert Christmas - The Greatest Gift of All!

 

Why It's Awesome:  Now you may be asking yourself why this is even on a Geek DVD list.  You may be doubting this film's Geek cred.  Well let me put to rest any doubts you may have about that.  Aside from running his own amazing TV show, Stephen Colbert has a long list of geek credits to his work.  He was a regular member of the old show Strangers With Candy, he's been a voice actor on shows like Harvey Birdman:  Attorney At Law and the Venture Brothers, he has Captain America's shield which was given to him by Marvel's Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, he ordered a life-size statue of himself made out of LEGO's, and he's even run for president of the USA in the Marvel Comic Books.  The man has geek cred coming out his ears.  So a christmas special from him means you're guaranteed to have a goodly amount of geek thrown into it.

 



 

The Lame:  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Wrapped and Ready for Christmas

 

Why It's Lame:  Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not mocking the film itself by adding it to the list as part of The Lame.  Aside from the fridge getting nuked and Shia La Beef: King of The Apes, I have no real problems with this film.  It was fun, I had a good time seeing it, and sooner or later I'll eventually end up buying it so I can stick it next to the Indy Trilogy I already own.  Why I've included this as part of The Lame is because of this specific version of the DVD being "Wrapped and ready for Christmas". 

 

Really?  Are people so damned lazy that they can't even manage to wrap DVD's for Christmas now?  Is the laziness so bad that it now necessitates a completely separate DVD release that already comes pre-wrapped so you don't have to do any work whatsoever?  Wow, if this isn't a sure sign of the coming apocalypse, I don't know what is.  Please people, do me a favor here, go buy the regular version of the DVD and wrap them your-damned-selves!  Don't go buying this copy.  It could be the beginning of a very dangerous trend where all gifts in stores become pre-wrapped for our convenience.  Meanwhile, we'll just continually get fatter drinking egg nog while we laugh at the olden days where one had to actually wrap gifts themselves.

Geeky Thanksgiving Tips

 

The wonderful thing about being a geek is that we can turn just about anything into a geeky event...even something as normal as Thanksgiving.

 

Case in point, Instructables.com has a great list of Geeky Thanksgiving Tips available on their website.  Along with the 20 sided dice pecan pie (pictured above), the site will also give you instructions on how to make things like thanksgiving calculators, spreadsheets, fractal pies, liquid nitrogen ice cream and recirculating gravy trains (so that your gravy doesn't get that icky skin on it).

 

The ideas presented are pretty fun, are totally geeky, and could be cool add-on's to your traditional family or friend's get together.

Why Isn't It January Yet?

 

For those of us who are crazed Battlestar Galactica fans, the wait for the final half of season four has been excruciating.  It's been almost a year for new episodes to come out.  And we've been left with so many damned questions.  Who's the final Cylon?  What will happen now that they know Earth is totally screwed?  Who will Baltar sleep with next?  These are all pressing matters we need resolution for.

 

And now they tease us with this awesome trailer of things to come.  It's unfair I tell you. 

 

I must make a clarification though about an earlier statement I made.  I said in an earlier post that I'm totally convinced that Hot Dog (the viper pilot) is the final Cylon.  I forgot though to credit this idea from where I originally got it...my friend Aaron.  He's the one who originally suspected that Hot Dog would be the final Cylon because of the fact that he, as a very minor character, was given an action figure when more prominent figures were passed over.  Aaron saw this as a sign that his character will be given more prominence in future episodes.  It's a sound theory and I support it.  So now I too am convinced that Hot Dog is the final Cylon.  Sorry I didn't credit you with the idea earlier Aaron.

If You're Ever On Star Trek, Never Ever Wear A Red Shirt

 

 

Fans of Star Trek have known for a very long time that wearing a red shirt in that universe is like daring the gods to kill you.  It's just something you don't do.  And woe be to those poor fools assigned to Engineering on the starship Enterprise (they're the ones stuck in red) because the mortality rate on the crewers in that department has got to be horrible.

 

For any new fans of Star Trek out there who will be jumping into the Trek universe with next year's new movie, please take a moment to watch the above video...a tribute in rememberance of those who have come before, and who have fallen in the line of duty.

 

(Via Topless Robot)

The Greatest Pie Chart Of All Time!

 

As a geek, I have to admit a nerdy love for pretty much anything with lots of colorful and informative charts and graphs in it.  However, I don't think I'll ever find another pie chart ever again that can even come close to being as awesome as the above pie chart is.

 

I don't know who made this pie chart, but whoever they are, they are my hero for today.  I've always looked at pie charts and thought they looked suspiciously like Pac-man.  Now I know with absolute certainty that I'm not the only one who has thought so.  It's good to know I'm not the only crazy game nerd in the world.

10 Great Geek Pranks

 

For many years now a rivalry has been brewing between the students of MIT and Cal-tech.  The two schools have been involved for a long standing and occasionally escalating series of pranks.  Determined to out-do their opponents, the students from each school have orchestrated some amazing and geeky pranks over the years.  Time.com currently has a great list of the Top 10 Pranks pulled off by the schools.  These pranks include things like turing a giant dome on a campus into R2-D2, getting the opposing school's fans to flash cards that say their school's name during a football game and my personal favorite:

 

During Hollywood's centennial in 2003, Caltech's Prank Club tackled the famous Hollywood sign with cherry pickers, large sheets of black and white plastic, and duct tape. They hung just enough plastic so that from a distance, the sign appeared to read "Caltech." "Hollywood is still mad about that," says Autumn Looijen, author of the prank history, Legends of Caltech III: Techer In the Dark. The sign assailants' names never surfaced, but their work has become famous on campus. (Both Caltech and MIT tout their students' pranks on their admissions websites.)

 

Never understimate determined geeks with nothing better to do than cause geeky havoc!

Just Another Muppet Monday - The Holiday Show (Part 1)

 

Good Morning everyone, and welcome back to another great week here at Geek-tastic.  This week, for those of us in the US, marks the beginning of the holiday season with Thanksgiving on Thursday.  What will follow will be a month long consumer spending spree that will leave us all destitue until somewhere around the middle of March.

 

However, the holiday season does have a few fun things to make up for the vast overspending and the accumulation of credit card debt.  It has holiday specials.  Yes, holiday specials, the most cheesy and usually lame episodes of our favorite shows.  Every genre of show has a holiday show too, action shows, detective shows, sitcoms, dramas.  You name it and I can probably find you a holiday episode of just about every show ever made.  Most of them are atrocious, but every now and then a gem of pure awesome can be found amongst their number.

 

The above clip is the first part of one such example.  The Muppet Family Christmas, the greatest combined Muppet show ever made, featuring characters from every Jim Hensen show all together to celebrate the holidays with each other.  The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street...they're all there. 

 

Some wonderous soul has posted the entire holiday special onto youtube in five separate parts, so for the next five weeks I'm going to be posting a portion of the show to the site here every monday morning for your viewing pleasure.  The last part will be posted on Monday, December 22nd, just in time for Christmas.

 

So let's get this party started rolling!  Our story starts off with Kermit and the Muppet crew all heading up to visit Fozzy's mom for Christmas.  Unfortunately, they didn't tell her they were coming.  She had plans to go to the tropics for Christmas and had rented her house out to the old guy and Sprocket (his dog) from Fraggle Rock.  But just as Fozzy's mom was about to leave, the truck with all the muppets show up and a large bit of chaos begins. 

 

This first part of the story also featuers a performance of Jingle Bell Rock from the always awesome Electric Mayhem!

The Week In Geek - 11/21/08

This week on Geek-tastic we learned the following:

 

• I've watched the new Star Trek trailer about a hundred times now.


• Speaking of the Star Trek trailer, I posted up a bunch of screen captures for you to all enjoy.


• Matt's new Weekly Batman Update has premiered, and Geek-tastic is better for having it included!


• Bruce Wayne is a big fat quitter.


• The concept of a live-action Robotech movie makes me nervous.


• Puppets are evil.


• John Hodgeman can play the ukelele.


• Master Chief is Korean.

Giant Squid Aside, The Watchmen Movie Is Filled With Tons Of Little Accurate Details

 



 

IO9 has a great article up on their site that breaks down a ton of the little details that Zach Snyder has painstakingly included into his adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen.  Now I know a ton of people out there are none too happy right now after the news of there being no giant squid in the film, but maybe some of these little details may help make up for some of the pain that news caused.

 

What kinds of details am I talking about?  Well, in the above picture you can see the following:

 

After the attacker busts into Edward Blake's abode, there's a scuffle that pans across the place, revealing the glorious Chrysler Building in the reflection of the glass walls before Blake goes careening right through it. This high rise [apartment] is treasure a trove of Watchmen and 80s memorabilia, it's littered with little details. When costumed adventurer Rorschach pops inside for a look around, you get to see right inside Blake's closet. Amongst everything else is a framed picture of the Minutemen, and the Comedian's old gun with the inscription "To Edward Blake With Gratitude" on the side which was presented to him from President Nixon. Old Nixon didn't resign in this reality, in fact 1985 will be his 5th term as President because he repealed the 22nd Amendment in 1975, so he can be Prez forever.

 

Too the right of the closet (actually throughout the whole apartment) there is a piece of what I'm assuming is Patrick Nagel art, which is unbelievable. Thank god that Zack Snyder knows that even in alternate realities, we still need artists to design the covers of Duran Duran albums.

 

Another amazing thing that the article points out which I never would have noticed on my own is the fact that the American flag that is stretched over Blake's coffin in the trailer has 51 stars on it.  If you remember, Vietnam became a US state in the Watchmen's universe after the US won the Vietnam war thanks to help from Dr. Manhattan.  Little touches like that are really cool and will go a long way towards making the film as close to the world of the comic as possible. 

 

One last thing of major note in the article, I hadn't really thought about it, but we do see a big blue ball of energy explode in rhe middle of Time's Square in the trailer.  Chances are, this is what will replace the aforementioned missing giant squid as part of the film's ending.

 



 

There are some other great little details pointed out in the article as well, if you want to check them out, read the article here.

Want To Know How To Beat Something Up?

 

Then make haste and head over to How To Beat Up Anything where they can teach you how to beat up...well...anything.

 

Their list of violence based tutorials is considerable and covers a wide range of possible people and things you may one day be forced to beat the crap out of.  On the site you'll find helpful instructions on how to beat up people like Mr. T, Michael Phelps, the Greek hero Achilles, Batman and even a monkey with a hammer.

 

The most recent post informs us how to beat up the Daily Bugle's freelance photographer Peter Parker.  Here's the intro:

 

A few people have suggested a how-to for this Peter Parker fellow. To be honest, I don't see much of a challenge here. Let's take a look - bookish, nerdy-type, keeps to himself, and somehow lucked himself into a cushy job selling photos to the Daily Bugle... Uhhh, help me out here guys, what am I missing?? This dude's a total zero and not worthy of our time. This fight should be a cake walk, as HE IS COMPLETELY HARMLESS. This guy sits around all day whining about his Aunt May, getting yelled at by the editor of the Bugle, and then sheepishly kicking at the dirt with his head down anytime a girl walks by. Riiiigght. Reeeaalll intimidating.

 

Be sure to check out the rest of the post to learn how to beat up that pimply little weakling Peter Parker.  Seriously, what a dork that guy is!

 

(Via Hero Complex)

Geek Item Of The Week

 

The greatest pin-up poster of all time

 

Pin-up posters have been around for a very very long time.  Over the course of the last century or so people have been pinning up posters of beautiful women to their walls all across the world.  Some incredibly famous names are included amongst the numbers of the most popular pin-up girls of all time.  Names like Josephine Baker, Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page.  But to geeks everywhere, there is only one woman who we will hold deep down in our hearts as the greatest pin-up girl of all time......Princess Leia in her slave outfit.

 

The image of Princess Leia, royal senator from Alderaan, in nothing more than a skimpy metal bikini (complete with collar and chain) has been giving geeks everywhere something to fantasize about for the last 28 years.  The outfit itself has become so popular that entire websites are devoted to teaching others how to make it for themselves.  At every comic or sci-fi convention there are women who show up in this costume.  The image of the Princess Slave has forever been burned into our hearts and into our dreams.

 

And for only $8.99 you too can own a copy of this, the greatest pin-up poster the world will ever know.

Two Fun Looking Animated Movie Trailers

We geeks love animated movies.  Especially when those animated movies cover geek topics like Sci-fi, aliens, monsters and Japanese Animation.  Two such films are coming next year, and they look to be rather entertaining.

 

The first film up to look at is Monsters vs. Aliens.  It looks like it's going to be a fun, tongue-in-cheek take on the classic 50's sci-fi monster/alien movies.  The basic plot is that the Earth has been invaded by an evil alien race and nothing the military throws at it seems to be able to stop them.  In desperation, they unleash a pack of classic 50's style monsters on them in the hopes that the monsters will be able to stop the aliens.

 

The monsters in question are The Blob, the 50 Foot Woman, Insectosaurus, The Missing Link and Dr. Cockroach.  And to ad to the fun of the film, the President of the United States is voiced by Stephen Colbert and the alien Commander is voiced by Dwight from The Office.

 

 

 

Also coming out next year is the American made version of the classic Japanese Anime show Astro Boy.  I don't know much about the film, but the trailer does look fun.

 

JJ Abrams' Star Trek Described A Little Bit

 

Wired has a piece up on the new Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams.  Earlier this week the director was in LA screening some extended scenes to press and movie execs and Wired had a reporter on hand to cover the event.  Their take on the film?  Well, it looks like they're going for a younger, louder and faster paced Star Trek film than we're used to seeing.

 

The verdict? While four five-minute clips do not a movie make, it's safe to say that Abrams' Trek will be younger, brighter, busier and more frenetically paced than any previous incarnation. The performances are edgier and louder, but not better. The effects are spectacular and executed on a scale never attempted by any Trek film. And, while connected to Gene Roddenberry's creation, this film is deliberately and unquestionably built in its own universe -- constructing its story on the idea that the original Star Trek time line has been destroyed and must be reconstructed as closely as possible.

 

Now when I first read that last bit, about the Star Trek timeline being "destroyed", I thought he was using that word as a metaphor.  But apparently the word "destroyed" is more of a literal description of the plot of the film.  If you don't want to read any SPOILERS, than I suggest you stop reading now, because here we go. 

 

It appears the plot of the film will involve time travel that is used for the sole purpose of messing up James T. Kirk's life.

 

What can be safely presumed after watching the preview footage? Romulan villain Nero (played by Eric Bana) has deliberately changed the past -- perhaps in an effort to purge history of that bane of all nasty aliens, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine). As a result, Kirk grows up without a dad and develops into a first-class space goof. Still, he finds his way to Starfleet Academy on the encouragement of the fatherly Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood).

 

Kirk remains a stellar idiot, despite obvious aptitude, and runs afoul of Spock (Zachary Quinto) and everybody else except Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), who sneaks Kirk aboard the Enterprise on its maiden voyage.

 

If Nero is to be stopped and the Federation, the Planet Vulcan and Kirk's future are to be saved, the Romulans must be foiled and Kirk must find a way to get his butt into the center seat of the Enterprise's frozen-yogurt-shop-style bridge. Fortunately, the older, wiser Spock Classic (Leonard Nimoy) is on hand to aid Kirk and to act as our ambassador to the new time line -- as though telling us to relax and accept that change is inevitable.

 

Wait a second, let let me get this straight.  The plot of the film is that the Romulan villain goes back in time and kills Kirk's dad, thus causing kirk to be a bit of a douche and thus changing the entire Star Trek timeline as we know it?  Well, that's kind of stupid. 

 

Look, we all know this film is a relaunch of the franchise.  We're ok with that.  We sort of expect this to be the Batman Begins of the Star Trek universe, and as such you don't want to be beholden to adhering to the well layed out pre-existing Star Trek timeline.  That's fine too, so don't pay attention to it.  But don't go taking the time to create a thoroughly cheesy plot device that enables you to "destroy" the existing timeline just so you can have an excuse to ignore it.  Why even take the time to worry about it?

 

Time travel?  Killing Kirk's dad?  That's kind of dumb.  I think that having to create a story that effectively destroys the existing timeline of Trek is retarded and unnecessary.  Just create a new version of Trek and tell us to deal with it.  We're adults here (mostly), we can take it.  I would much rather have seen a film that just went ahead with its view of Star Trek without any explanations of why it was slightly different than the original than see one that spends an entire movie explaining why it's different than the original.  That just seems kind of pointless to me.

 

Nevermind my bitching, I'm just venting a bit.  I absolutely loved the trailer for this movie, and chances are I'll love the film too.  I just felt the need to share.

Grand Theft Auto DLC Coming February 17th

 

USAToday has an artile up on their website that gives us the details to the much talked about Downloadable Content that will be coming out for Grand Theft Auto 4.  Called "The Lost and the Damned", the new xbox exclusive (for now) content follows a brand new character called Johnny Klebitz who is a member of a biker gang called The Lost.

 

"Johnny is a very different character than Niko [Bellic], with a very different background," says Dan Houser, vice president of creative development for Rockstar Games. "I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

 

No specific details were given regarding how many hours of gameplay the new content would add to the game, nor is there a difinitive answer as to how much the new content will cost.

 

Rudden hopes the episode costs $15 or less, but Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter expects a $20 price and says Rockstar could sell 2 million to 3 million downloads. "I see episodic content as a natural progression of the quality of downloadable content."

 

Personally, I'm just worried that the story is about a biker gang.  I don't know about you, but the motorcycle missions in GTA4 are the missions I hated the most.  If you so much as hit a curb wrong or bump a car you can go flying off of your bike, and if you're trying to chase someone while on a bike the constant falling off can be really annoying.  I'm really hoping that the new content won't feature a ton of motorcycle missions.  If it does, I may just have to pass on picking this up.

The Coraline Trailer Looks Wicked Cool

 

Coraline was originally a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, but it has been adapted to be a stop-motion animated movie by the guy who directed a little film you may have heard of before called the Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

The trailer looks amazing, and the film is even going to be in 3D.  I can't wait for this to come out.

I'm Sad I Don't Live In New York

 

The Blip Festival is a music festival that will be taking place in New York from December 4th through the 7th that features the best artists from the chipmusic scene.  Chipmusic is a style of music that is made by using the audio chips from old video game systems like the original Game Boy or the Commodore 64.

 

Basically, it sounds like old NES game music that has been remade into dance music...and its awesome.  For a bit more info about chipmusic and some great examples of how the songs sound, check this out.  Above is a video promo for the festival, which gives you a feel for how the music sounds, plus it's a fun little piece of animation all on its own.

 

I wish they did a Blip Festival in LA.  I would love to go to something like this, but New York is unfortunately a little too far away for me to get to.

 

At least I have this to listen to.  I can't listen to this song and not be happy.

 



 

(Via Offworld)

John Hodgeman Interview

 

Over at my good friend Melanie's blog OxfordFilmFreak, she has posted up an amazingly wonderful interview with John Hodgeman.  Mr. Hodgeman, as you'll recall is the gentleman who plays the PC in the Mac & PC commercials by Apple.  He's also the Daily Show's resident expert, as well as an actor, radio personality, former literary agent and author of two books full of fake facts.  He's also an suprisingly good singer and ukelele player.

 

The interview covers many different areas of Mr. Hodgeman's life, such as how he got to be on the Daily Show, how the Mac & PC ads have affected his life, what he's working on now and many other topics.  One thing I found truly entertaining though was the conversation he had regarding factoids (i.e. fake facts that sound or appear to be true).

 

Q: But isn’t that where great fiction comes from, something bigger than the truth but grasps the idea of truth?

 

A: The point of fiction is that truth is stranger than the fiction but never as strange as lies that are not true. It is in part inspired by the feeling one has when you have been lied to and discover it. The lie is always much more elaborate and the motives are often completely understandable.

 

For example, I used to sub-let my apartment in New Haven after I moved to New York. And when I would run into the guy he would say everything was great. But it wasn’t. He wasn’t paying rent and he was a monster, like that movie Pacific Heights. The landlord turned over the letters that the deadbeat would leave as excuses for why he couldn’t pay rent. The letters were more than apologetic. He had every right to be a monster and just not pay the rent, I mean, that happens. But he wanted to maintain the idea that he was a good person so he began to lie.

 

The flip side of that worn coin is that fiction is a kind of lie that does illuminate a certain truth. Truth does not have human motivation, it just is. But a lie reveals something about the teller and the world they live in.

 

The interview really is a good and in-depth conversation with someone whom I believe to be one of the most unique and humorous people working today.  It's a great read and I am highly jealous of Melanie for getting to interview Mr. Hodgeman.  She did a much better job than anything I would have possibly come up with though, so it's a good thing she's the one who got to talk to him.  I would have just acted like a giddy fanboy and the interview would be five minutes of me telling John Hodgeman how awesome he is before he got annoyed by me and left.

Mattman's Weekly Batman Update.

Okay. I feel maybe that I should explain my reasons for doing this, or maybe not it's sick really. Recently my very close friend Jesse Lopez finally opened his own comic book store. *PLUG* *PLUG* So was born Thou Shalt Game. Well for my birthday in September Jesse decided as a gift he would give me a subscription to 3 different comics in his store. This posed a major problem to me and my O.C.D. Anal retentive nature. You see I had just decided to stop collecting individual comics a few years ago and focus only on purchasing and collecting Trade Paperbacks or "Graphic Novels" of the comics that I really felt I wanted to own and have displayed upon my shelves, like one would have in their study amongst the classics. Really I envisioned myself as an elderly man sitting in his study with classic hard-bound copies of Moby Dick and A Tale of Two Cities sitting next to Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns as I sat in a robe smoking a cigar and drinking brandy. So I sold off, gave away and even threw away 20 years worth of boxes and boxes of comics that did nothing more than sit in my mothers garage and collect dust. I then focused on building my future collection of "classics". Fast forward to September 12th, 2008. You can imagine what it did to an anal retentive, O.C.D., Virgo brain to suddenly have comic collecting forced upon him. A nice gift. But to the O.C.D. it's just more clutter they have to worry about.

After many battles over which 3 comics to choose I finally decided to jump back into Batman. My most beloved of characters. Not an easy task any comic book fan can tell you. Batman makes more appearances at important events than Forrest Gump. To try and keep track of what he's doing in a given month is like trying to count the number of ninjas at an "I Hate Daredevil Convention". But it was then that it hit me. What if I did try and collect all the books that Batman graces in a given week. Not only that, but what if I wrote a weekly review of his appearances? This project intrigued my obsessive mind. The three issues a month that Jesse covered would be included as well as whatever subsequent ones that would have to come out of my own pocket. I could call this review: Mattman's Weekly Batman Update. That sounded awesome. Of course the full details of this plan did not come into a full idea until last week, which is why you are getting this review now and not immediately following my birthday.

I chose quite a time to jump back into Batman. If you have been keeping up Batman comics are about to go through quite a change. When DC Comics announced last year that they would be releasing Final Crisis in 2008 they promised it would be the last Crisis. Yeah right, we'll see. They also promised that one of the "Big Three" (meaning Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) would not be left after the event was over. They never said died. Just that one of them wouldn't be around anymore. So who were they talking about? Superman? Yeah right. Been there, done that. They killed Superman and we all knew before they even finished him off that he would be back. Wonder Woman? I think they already killed her too. Batman? No way! You can't kill Batman! The level of awesome that has been bulit up on the character of Batman over the last 70 years has elevated him to the level of comic book god. So DC eventually annouces that they would plan a Batman story that would run parallel to Final Crisis in the Batman books and it would be called Batman R.I.P. This cross-over promised to be the story of Batman's final fate, with it's actual outcome being told in Final Crisis itself. Writer Grant Morrison said "what's going to happen to Batman is a fate so much better than death. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman".

I know what you are thinking. This is just the kind of crap that they have been pulling in comics since the nineties. I myself have been disgusted with the whole thing. It is one of the reasons I decided to stop collecting a few years ago aside from my anal need to rid myself of clutter. They kill characters and bring them back. They create major changes to characters, stories and universes only to reverse them years, sometimes months later. This negates the entire purpose of the stories and makes for shitty story telling. Superman dies, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) dies, Robin (Jason Todd) dies, Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) dies, Flash (Barry Allen) dies, Gwen Stacy dies, Green Goblin (Norman Osborn) dies, Bucky dies, and so on. Then they are brought back in a story that good or bad (usually bad) negates the entire previous story that may or may not have done a great job of defining major change in comics history. During the much dreaded Spider-Clone Saga (if you could call it that) of the mid-nineties, Peter Parker is revealed to be a clone and Ben Riley is revealed to be the actual Peter Parker! So the Spider-Man we have all known and loved has, since the clone was first introduced in 1975, actually been the clone himself? Wha? Then a short while later due to poor fan reaction they reversed it somehow. To tell you the truth, I never found out how they managed to dig themselves out of that pile of shit. I honestly didn't care.

And Batman himself? Well he's been through this too. Hasn't he? During the very successful Knightfall/Knightsquest/Knightsend story Bane breaks Batman's back. He is forced to give up the cape and cowl for a bit while he recovers. He foolishly gives it up to Azrael, a lunatic that he barely knows. Then Azrael goes nuts, modifies the Batsuit into killing armor, and begins killing enemies. This forces Bruce Wayne out of healing early to re-train to be Batman and hand Azrael's ass to him re-claiming the Bat Mantle as it should be, in the hands of Bruce Wayne. I know Pat already covered this previously on this site (and I hope my description of Knightfall didn't sound too much like his) so sorry if you're getting a second summary of the events. I have fond memories of Knightfall from my childhood. But it did come out when I was a child. In middle school. The story itself is crap. The art is sub-par. Bad writing and bad art. Honestly it was the events that stood out to me. They are still very powerful events in my memory. But it is these events from the past that are eventually undone that make "new" universe changing stories of today seem so very powerless.

So this new Batman R.I.P. sounds like it might be very similar to Knightfall right? Bruce Wayne gives up the Mantle of the Bat, someone else takes it up for a short while and in a year or two they will fix everything with Bruce back in the old cape and cowl again. Right? That's what I thought too. And it very well could turn out that way. But I've been reading it and one thing it has that so many of those gimmicks from the past never had is a brilliant writer. Grant Morrison is amazing. He's writing Final Crisis and Batman R.I.P. right now and his storytelling is very original. He may be weaving gimmicks but at least they are well written. That I believe is one of the main problems with all those gimmick comics of the past: the gimmicks may have been unbelievably cool but the writers were never of the prestige of Frank Miller or Alan Moore. I believe Grant Morrison to be of that caliber. Even if all the events of Batman R.I.P. are eventually undone, it is unlike anything I have ever read before. For a gimmick comic it certainly avoids all the gimmick cliches. The storyline is yet to be finished with just a few issues to go. But needless to say this is a strange time to jump right into the middle of reading Batman comics.

So now I bring myself to the reviews of the Batman comics that were released today. Actually I was unable to get Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves #3. Damn and that was the only Batman title this week that actually featured Batman!



Trinity #25:
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Back-up feature Writers: Kurt Busiek/Fabian Nicieza
Back-up feature Penciler: Mike Norton

Trinity is a weekly title published by DC that features Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Unforunatley this weeks issue features none of them. This is because the title is in the middle of a storyline where the world is trapped in an alternate world where there is no Batman, Wonder Woman, or Superman. Of course the idea is good and it is interesting to see alternate versions of characters we all know and love but the writing is boring and the artwork is rushed and sloppy. Even the back-up story which takes place in the same alternate reality suffers from the same.

The world is run by a totalitarian version of the Justice Society known as the JSI and the Justice League is and underground freedom fighting team known as the League, lead by Lex Luthor. The JSI and the League are just now discovering that their reality "should not be" and are trying to figure out how to turn things back to normal. You get the idea that this alternate reality exists because it's a spell of Morgan Lee Fey. Whether the heroes and villains have figured that out yet remains to be seen. Like I said it's and ultimately forgettable story but it does feature some cool alternate versions of characters. A Barry Allen Flash that had shrapnel embedded in his legs rendering him immobile. A Dick Grayson that is head of the Zucco crime family. A top British spy Alfred Pennyworth. These are the only shining moments in an otherwise forgettable story.



Batman and the Outsiders #13
Writer: Frank Tieri
Pencils: Fernando Dagnino

This story obviously takes place after Bruce Wayne retires (or whatever) from being Batman. Also the Outsiders have apparently disbanded. You get the sense that Gotham has been without Batman for sometime now. The story centers around Batgirl. She is looking around Gotham for clues about Batman's disappearance and finds herself in a scuffle with Vigilante at the Penguin's nightclub. You can actually see thugs in the background taking bets as to what became of Batman. Spoiler gets involved in the fight (she's been sniffing around Gotham trying to find out what happened to Batman too) and Batgirl puts and end to it. She tells the two of them that she has an offer. It becomes apparent that Batgirl isn't looking for clues about Batman's whereabouts at all. The last scene shows her in the Batcave looking over files. Alfred says something that implies that maybe Batgirl is trying to orchestrate a plan that would lead the criminals of Gotham to believe that Batman is back in town. Alfred says Dick would not approve. The last panel shows Nightwing walking into the Batcave looking ready for a fight with Batgirl. Nightwing: "Oh, we'll be having ourselves a talk, alright..." The last caption reads next issue: Nightwing vs. Batgirl!

Honestly it's an okay read. It certainly is setting the tone for the outcome of the R.I.P. storyline. Like I said though. That is the really good stuff, the things that are happening in the "main" R.I.P. storyline that is running through Batman right now.

Till next week.
Smell ya later,
Mattman.

Apparently, Master Chief Is Korean

 

The Korean army has released information regarding a new set of armor that its soldiers will soon be wearing out in the field, and it looks like something out of the game Halo.  Even the gun that they're going to be using looks like something found in the game.  I swear, I think the military designers must have played a lot of Halo when they were designing this costume.

 

Aside from looking like Spartan armor suits, the armor comes with some pretty swanky gadgets too.

 

The new new battle uniforms would provide protection against nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks, and would feature automatic temperature control. A new protective vest is also planned. In addition to keeping the lead out, the helmet will be prewired for minicam video transmission, GPS navigation, and assorted networking gear, the official said.

 

No word has been given yet on when the Covenant armada is expected to invade Korea, but it's good to know they're prepared for the event when it does happen.  Man, why can't our army soldiers look this cool?  I bet you enlistment rates would go up if you had commercials with guys in Spartan-ish outfits like this fighting in scenes that were reminiscent from popular video games.  You could turn joining the army into videogame geek wish fulfillment.

 

(Via Geekologie)

Google And LIFE Magazine Team Up To Bring Us Photographic Awesomeness

 



For any of you Photo or History Nerds out there, Google has teamed up with LIFE Magazine to provide, free to the masses, all of LIFE's back catalogue of photographs.

 

That's around 10,000,000 photos we're talking about here covering human history from the 1860's to the present.  I applaud both Google and LIFE for doing this.  Making our history accessible and free to everyone is something that should happen a lot more often, but sadly doesn't as people and companies are always concerned about copyrighted images.

 

News is news people.  Nobody owns history.  It should be free.  And thanks to these two great companies, a little bit of it is.  Looking through the pictures you're bound to find all sorts of interesting things, like the above image of Disneyland taken around the time that the Matterhorn must have first opened (you can see a bigger version of the image here).  Check out how cool the park looks below the guys in the background.  You can even see the full size pirate ship that used to be in the park as well as the Alice In Wonderland ride on the right side of the pic.

X-Men Cartoon And New Movie News Double Whammy

 

 

There's two pieces of X-men related news to report today.  The first is the above video clip.  It's the trailer for the upcoming new X-Men animated series.  Coming in January 2009, the new show will be called Wolverine and the X-Men (because the X-Men name itself isn't apparently enough to sell a show, you need to throw Wolverine's name in there too just so fans know he's in there).    Aside from the questionable plot of Wolverine having to pull a broken up group of X-Men back together to fight the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the show looks like it's going to be really good.  First off, the animation looks nice and it appears that the show is going to be dealing with some of the Days of Future Past stuff.  Secondly, in the first trailer that came out, we learned that the show will not have Professor X and Jean Grey (as least, not right away) as they are presumed killed in an explosion on the school's grounds, which leads Cyclops to become a bitter and depressed drunk.  That there sounds like it'll be fun to watch.

 

The second bit of X-Men related news today is word that the X-Men film franchise is due to get a new series of films coming out, but don't expect these movies to star main-stays like Wolverine or Cyclops.  Variety is reporting that 20th Century is gearing up to make a new X-Men movie that centers around the younger group of X-Men.  But there's one bit of potentially horrible news here.  The project is being written by Josh Schwartz, the guy who created the shows Gossip Girl and The OC.

Fox has been leaning toward using the younger characters introduced in the previous pics in future installments -- teenagers with powers taught at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

 

The resulting film would likely draw from elements of the Marvel comic of the same name, launched in 2006, and enlist such characters as Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat, who have appeared prominently or made cameos in prior pics.

 

It sounds to me like they're trying to make a movie that will capitalize on the teeny bopper buzz around films like Twilight and Harry Potter.  Think of this like "Xavier Institute: 90210". 

 

Are you as frightened by this as I am?

Robot Chicken Star Wars II

 

Did you miss Robot Chicken's new Star Wars episode that aired over the weekend?  Well have no fear, because Adult Swim is streaming the entire episode online here.

(Via Popcandy)

New Geek DVD Day - 11/18/08

 

The Good:  The Universe - The Complete Season 1

 

Why It's Good:  I'm a huge documentary nerd.  Back when I had cable, the History Channel was watched on a fairly regular basis.  I'm also a huge space nerd, so to have a kickass History Channel about the history of the Universe is like the ultimate documentary.  This box set comes with 13 episodes of space exploration glory as well as a documentary called Beyond The Big Bang.  And the whole thing is in Blue-ray.  For any space junkies out there like me, this is a must have.

 



 

The Badass: Tropic Thunder Unrated Director's Cut

 

Why It's Badass:  By far the funniest comedy film of the summer (if not the year), Ben Stiller's action/comedy about a bunch of whiny actors trying to make a big budget war film is a spot on lampoon of hollywood action films as well as the business of making them.  Robert Downey Jr. is downright hilarious in his portrayal of an overlycommited actor portraying a black marine Sargeant in the Vietnam war.  I dare you to watch this film and not laugh at least once really hard.  That's right, I dare you.

 



 

The Awesome:  Dr. Who - The Complete Fourth Series and Dr. Who - The Infinite Quest

 

Why It's Awesome:  It's Dr. Who.  That alone should be enough to make it awesome.  The fourth season of the new Dr. Who admittedly has my least favorite of the Doctor's companions in it, but it also has a number of really great episodes.  And the build up to the gigantic finale was 100% pure awesome, featuring characters from every Dr. Who season from the new series as well as appearances by the cast of Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures.  It was like a gigantic sandwhich of greatness on British Sci-Fi bread. 

 

As for the Animated box set, I sadly must say that I've never heard of it before.  But it has the actual cast from the live action show doing the voices of the characters.  According to the reviews on Amazon, the set compiles a number of animated bits that originally aired on a BBC kid's show.  They've never been released in the US before.  So think of it like a Clone Wars version of Dr. Who.  Sounds pretty interesting if you ask me.

Geek Music Perfection!

 

 

Oh my god, this is too geekily awesome for words.  John Hodgeman, the guy who plays the PC in the MAC & PC ads and who is also the Daily Show's Resident Expert, in the above clip can be found playing the Ukelele on stage with geek musician Jonathan Coulton.  And they're even playing one of my favorite songs, the classic "Tonight, you belong to me".

 

Is there better nerd bliss to be found today?  I think not.

 

For another version of this great song, which isn't really geeky but is still awesome, check it out here.

 

(Via BoingBoing)

 

UPDATE:  It looks like I'm not the only person that's amused by this.  Shortly after I posted this I went onto Mental_Floss and noticed they've posted a very thorough article on this song as well.  Complete with a different performance of the song by Mr. Hodgeman and Mr. Coulton as well as links to a version by Eddie Vedder and ther version from the film The Jerk starring Steve Martin.

Who The Frak Is The Final Cylon?

 

It's the question that has been bugging Battlestar Galactica Fans for months now.  Who the hell is the final Cylon?  Hints have been given, suggestions have been made, but no one seems to know for sure.  And what with the new Battlestar episodes not airing until January, it's going to be a while until we figure it out.

 

Not content with just sitting idly by and waiting though, the intrepid folks at IO9.com are breaking down the clues we've been given so far.  They're sifting through the hints and the vague references and are trying to compile a list together of who they think the final Cylon most likely is.

 

Unfortunately, the clues are very vague and the answer is that just about anyone could be the final frakking Cylon.  However, their article is worth a read as it brings up some very good points about what little information we do know concerning the identity of the last hidden toaster.

 

Personally, my vote is for either Lt. Gaeta or the pilot Hot Dog.  But that's just my opinion.

Lots Of Star Trek Trailer Pictures

 

So last night I was bored.  It was a Monday night, and being a geek with nothing else to do, I went onto the official Star Trek movie website and watched the brand new trailer in pretty HD about a dozen times.

 

Then I got the idea in my head to take a bunch of screen captures from the trailer and use photoshop to turn them into jpegs to share with you, my geeky friends.  I posted the pics to Geek-tastic's flickr account, so you can go there to see more, but here are a few of my favorites.

 

Kirk and Spock are BFF's. 

 



 

But even BFF's fight every now and then.  Just try not to piss Spock off.  Trust me, you won't like him when he's angry.

 



 

Warp Speed Mr. Sulu!

 



 

Hooray for Simon Pegg!  Best possible casting decision for Scotty!

 



 

And last, but certainly not least...The USS Enterprise, looking absolutely gorgeous.

 



 

Again, you can see the rest of the images here.  I'll probably go back in and add more this evening too. So be sure to check back in occasionally.

 

Enjoy!

We All Knew Stuff Like This Was Coming

 

What with the Watchmen Movie being a gigantic big budget hollywood movie coming out next year, we all knew merchandise tie-ins were inevitable.  Toys would soon be lining our store shelves, t-shirts with the Nite Owl on them would be worn by geeks everywhere and Rorschach will be next year's most popular halloween costume.

 

What I hadn't stopped to think about though, was video games.  But I clearly wasn't thinking because what big budget action/comic book movie comes out anymore without a video game tie in to it?  I don't know why I didn't see this coming, but a Watchmen video game, sadly, makes sense.

 

However, far be it for Warner Brothers to be content to just make a standard, run of the mill movie adaptation where you basically take a brawler game design, allow players to choose characters from the movie, and then play through levels from the film beating up and killing wave after wave of street thugs and (in the case of the comedian) pregnant women.

 

No, that would be way too simple.  Instead, the WB has decided to create Watchmen: The End is Nigh.  The game is actually set to be a prequel to the original comic story.  That's right, you heard me, a frakking prequel.  Set in 1972 (five years before the superhero ban), The End is Nigh follows Rorschach and the Nite Owl as they go wandering around the city and beating up people and god knows what else.

 

Look, I don't know who wrote the script for this game, and to be honest I don't care.  This should NOT have been made.  You wanna make a Watchmen film?  I'm totally cool with that.  WB is going to demand a videogame tie-in?  Ok, whatever, that always happens so that's fine too.  But to make the game adaptation a prequel to the story?  To make a brand new Watchmen related story?  No...I'm sorry.  Fuck you.  That's where I draw the line.  There's no reason for that.  Why couldn't you just make a game version of the movie?  What, were you worried that the Vietnam levels where you get to play as Dr. Manhattan blowing up people just by pointing at them would be too controversial? 

 

What's sad is that as the internets are sure to be fuming right now with the righteous anger and fury of geeks everywhere, somewhere deep in a dark room with the curtains pulled shut to block out all the light...Alan Moore sits alone and howls with laughter into the night.  "See?  Do you now see!?!?!" he screams maniacially.  "This is what I tried to tell you.  I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen.  Now you must rot in the graves you have dug for yourselves!!!"

 

I have no idea if Alan Moore actually speaks like that, or for that matter if he ever howls with laughter or screams maniacially.  I'm just totally guessing based on how he looks and how he's acted in the past.  I'm totally convinced I'm right though.

 

(Via IO9 where you can see a bunch more screenshots from the game)

The Puppet

I'm a big animation geek, and I was so amused by this animated short film that I had to share it with you.

 

The Puppet is the story of a man who decides to make himself a simple hand puppet to play with, but the puppet is a rather evil creature who causes his maker all sorts of pain and torment.

 

The animation is good, and the soundtrack fits perfectly to the action on the screen.  The Nightmare scene really reminded me of the awesome nightmare scenes from the old classic Disney movies.  I hope whoever made this is getting all sorts of good recognition for it.  It's a great piece of work

Bruce Wayne Calls It Quits

 

USA Today has an article up regarding the current Batman R.I.P storyline that sort of gives away the ending (so don't go blaming me for the spoilers here, it was already done by a newspaper that has waaaaaaaaay more readers than I do) to next week's issue which will be concluding the story arc. 

 

Just as The Dark Knight closes in on $1 billion worldwide gross, DC Comics is ready to have Bruce Wayne "die" — or at least give up the cape — in his monthly comic.

 

Batman #681, due Nov. 26, wraps up writer Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. story line, in which the crimefighter is so shaken by a secret from his past that a new Batman must be found.

 

Ok, where do I start here.  First off, it's completely retarded to call your big ass storyline Batman R.I.P. if Batman isn't actually dying at the end of it.  If he's just giving the cape, it should have been called Batman: Social Security, or maybe Batman: AARP.  But Batman R.I.P.?  I'm sorry, I'm not buying it.  You've built up fans for months now teasing the possible death of Bruce Wayne...only to have him retire because of some deep dark secret that shakes him up.

 

That's lame.  Not only is it lame, it's an obvious and pathetic excuse for the story to not have to have any serious long term consequences.  If Bruce Wayne actually died, then maybe this story would mean something in the long run, but as it is, he's only stepping down.  And any comic fan with an IQ above seven will be able to tell you that isn't going to last long.  It's only a matter of time before Bruce "comes out of retirement" and reclaims the mantle of the Bat.

 

This whole thing is nothing more than a redo of Knightfall from the 90's when Bruce had his back broken by Bane.  Back then, Azrael took up the suit, changed it into an awesome robo-Batsuit and went on a killing spree.  It got bad enough that Bruce and his new surgically repaired spine had to re-train to be Batman just so he could kick Azrael's ass for running Batman's name through the mud.

 

Something similar will happen here, we all know it.  This story will go for maybe a year or so, but sooner or later something so big and menacing will face Gotham city that Bruce will have no choice but to step in and take back over for whoever ends up taking his place while he's gone.  Either that, or he'll just man up and stop being a whiny little bitch and will get over whatever this dark secret is and go back to whooping hoodlum ass.

 

I hate it when comic companies do this.  Every now and then these huge stories crop up out of the woodwork and promise to "Change a character forever!".  Well guess what?  Nothing lasts forever in comics.  Characters will always find a way to revert to their default setting.  Superman died and came back with a mullet, Batman got his back broken only to have it repaired.  Spider-man had that whole clone saga nonsense.  Jason Todd was killed by the joker only to return.  Norman Osbourne killed himself only to return with a wicked scar across his chest.  Aunt May, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Professor X have all died at least a half a dozen times each.

 

None of it means anything.  I don't get why comics fans repeatedly buy into this same shit over and over again.  Who here really thinks that Bruce Wayne retiring here will be permanent?  With Dark Knight being the highest grossing film this year?  Yeah right, not gonna happen.  This is just another big advertising ploy, and in a year or two's time, none of this story is going to matter.