Some Thoughts On The New Avengers Entertainment Weekly Cover

The upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly will feature the above cast shot of The Avengers on it's cover, as well as include some behind-the-scenes pics as well inside the magazine. No, I know a magazine cover like this is going to be photoshopped to hell, and this one certainly is no exception, but I couldn't help noticing a few things about the team thanks to this pic.

• Thor obviously has the hots for Black Widow, given the way he's eyeing her.
• Tony Stark looks like he's trying really, really hard to appear sober.
• Giving Scarlett Johansson that short, red hairdo has turned her from already super hot to "Girl of Pat's Dreams" status. Well done Avengers makeup and hair team!
• It's no wonder Black Widow has to point guns at both Thor's and Tony Stark's heads. That's probably the only way to get them to stop trying to put their hands on her.
• Cap looks determined and intense, as he should.
• Hawkeye looks appropriately self-assured and dickish.
• Bruce Banner is obviously a fan of Derek Zoolander, as he's giving us his most fierce Blue Steel!

The interior sneak peak picks are nothing too big, really. If you want to see them, you can find them all here. These are the two I liked the most though.

How many times have we seen a shot just like this on a comic book page? Cap and Tony standing near each other and working together on something. Seeing it in real life though is just giving me a major case of the Squees! Love it!!!

All I can really say here is . . . Mmmmmmmmmm. She can blow up my skyscraper anytime!

Happy 25th Birthday To Castlevania

Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the granddaddy of all horror video games, the original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although, technically the game didn't come out on the NES until 1987, it was originally released in Japan on September 26th, 1986 for something called the Family Computer Disk System (FDS). The NES release was a port over from this release.

I can't be 100% honest here and say that I remember Castlevania totally fondly because the game was hard as hell. I've never actually managed to beat it and I remember spending hour upon frustrating hour dying over and over as a result of badly timed jumps or those damned little hunchback creatures.

Overall though, I really did love the game. For a kid whose favorite holiday is Halloween, Castlevania was like a dream come true. You got to play the brave adventurer Simon Belmonst as he made his way through a creepy gothic castle filled with ghosts, zombies, skeletons, flying medusa heads, giant vampire bats and more. Along the way you'd face some of the biggest monsters in all of horror including The Mummy, Frankenstein, Medusa and the man himself . . . Dracula!

It was the perfect game for 10 year old me. I can't even count the number of hours I spent playing that game as a kid. To this day I can still hum the game's soundtrack from memory. I'd even go so far as to say that it is very much responsible for making me even more of a fan of Halloween and monsters than I already was before.

Thank you for all the good times Castlevania! Hell, even the frustrating times were still fun deep down too. Happy Birthday!

Oh, and if you like that totally sweet art above from the original game, I've posted a bigger version of it to the Geek-tastic Flickr pool. It makes for a great desktop wallpaper.

Wow, Catwoman Actually Looks Like Catwoman

Oh thank god! Some behind-the-scenes set pics have been leaked from the still in-production Dark Knight Rises that show Anne Hathaway in her full Catwoman outfit, and guess what? She actually looks like Catwoman!!!

This is a vast improvement on the picture that was released earlier, where she didn't look in any way catlike at all. This time, not only is she wearing a black face mask, but she's actually wearing full on cat ears! The outfit is even reminiscent of the classic 60's Catwoman outfit worn by Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether and Ertha Kitt. This makes me very happy.

From what I can gather, those cat ears of hers are actually those same goggles that she was wearing in the earlier picture that was released. That's just what they look like when they're pushed up onto her head. If that's the case, making the ears an actual functioning piece of tech that she uses as a burglar is pretty cool. I just wish that they would have released something more like this when they sent out the first official promo pic of her. That would have gotten the fanboys into much less of a hissy fit than what happened before.

(Via Ain't It Cool News)

8 Remakes & Reboots That Are Worth A Damn

Over the last few years, I've been hearing a lot of bitching and complaining from people everywhere about how all Hollywood is doing these days is remaking or rebooting old franchises, and how these new versions are never as good as the originals. While I certainly won't argue with the fact that Hollywood does indeed have the remake/reboot engine running at full throttle, I do feel like I should point out that not all remakes or reboots are bad things. In fact, sometimes these new versions are pretty damned awesome.

To that end, I would like to present 8 films here that are either remakes or reboots of something else, and which are all bonafide bad ass. Whether or not these films are as good, greater or worse than those that came before them is, of course, up to personal opinion, but all of these films have rather high rankings on Rotten Tomatoes, and are generally loved by the overall movie-going audience.

The next time someone complains to you about how horrible remakes or reboots are, be sure to tell them about these films.

8. Fright Night

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 75%

This is a fairly recent one, so if you haven't seen it yet, that's ok. You really should give it a try though. I wasn't originally planning on going to see it myself, but I went with some friends and was really surprised at just how good this was. Colin Farrell is an absolute blast to watch as the Vampire-next-door Jerry. Throughout the film you can seriously feel just how much fun he's having playing the role. Dr. Who fans should also take note because David Tenant is hilarious as a Midori-loving Vegas magician named Peter Vincent. For something that is a remake of a beloved 80's film, this new version stands on it's own as a great time. It's at times both funny and genuinely frightening and stays consistently entertaining from beginning to end.

7. Airplane!

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 98%

Did you honestly think that Hollywood's obsession with remakes was a recent phenomenon? Hardly. Remakes have been taking place since the dawn of the filmmaking industry. It's so prevalent, in fact, that sometimes a film pops up that's a remake of a film that's so old, no one even recognizes it as a remake. Such is the case with the comedy classic Airplane. It's actually a remake of a classic black & white film called Zero Hour. And more than that, it's almost a shot-for-shot of that film too. Don't believe me? Just watch the above video comparing the two.

6. Casino Royale

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 94%

Casino Royale is actually a double whammy. It is both a remake and a reboot. It's a remake of the 1967 original and is also a reboot of the James Bond franchise after the uber-popular Pierce Brosnan stepped down from his role as 007 after having played him in four films. This film took us back to Bond's origins, before he was even a Double 0 agent. He may not have had his license to kill just yet, but this new bond was tough as nails and won over fans around the world. Don't get me wrong, I still love Connery the best, but Daniel Craig is fighting with Brosnan as my second favorite bond, that's for sure.

5. The Thomas Crown Affair

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 71%

Speaking of Pierce Brosnan, he starred in the remake of the 1968 film and it's one of the most stylish films I've ever seen. This is an art theft caper for the ages, filled with nothing but class from beginning to end. And let's not forget Rene Russo in some of the steamiest sex scenes ever put to celluloid. I could watch this film a hundred times and still be entertained by it.

4. Dawn of the Dead

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 74%

Remaking a George Romero zombie film is not an easy task. Romero is the man who basically invented the genre of the zombie film and introduced it to popular culture. He's the godfather of zombie stories, yet somehow Zack Snyder manages to take his original story of a bunch of survivors holed up in a mall and turns it into a movie worthy of the name Dawn of the Dead. This movies has everything you want in a zombie story, blood, gore, sex, massive devastation and even zombie babies. The intro to the film alone, set to the music of Johnny Cash, makes this one a horror masterpiece.

3. Batman Begins

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 90%

You'd think that making a good Batman film would be an easy task, right? I mean, come on, it's Batman! He's one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. How could you screw that up? Well, I've got two words for you. Joel Schumacher. That man put out two of the worst comic book films of all time and managed to sully the name of the caped crusader so badly that he killed the successful movie franchise begun by Tim Burton in 1989. For eight solid years, there was no Batman to be seen in the summer movie lineup after the unforgivable travesty that is 1997's Batman & Robin was released. But then in 2005 Warner Brothers took a gamble on an artsy filmmaker named Christopher Nolan and the rebooted the whole franchise to Bruce Wayne's early days, before he'd even thought of becoming the Dark Knight. The result was one of the best, most realistic comic book movies ever made. Yes, it was even enough to make us forget about such things as nipples on the Bat-suit, for a little while at least.

2. Star Trek

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 94%

Star Trek is a pop culture phenomenon of unrivaled proportions. As a franchise, it recently celebrated it's 45th anniversary. During that time, it has spawned five live-action TV series, one animated TV series and more movies than you can shake a Tribble at. However, by the year 2005 the franchise was in decline. Overexposure and a few bad shows and films had made fans bored with the United Federation of Planet. The last of the running Star Trek shows was cancelled and further movies starring the Next Generation cast were cancelled due to low box office performance. It was a dark time for Trekkies everywhere. Then in 2009, a brand new Trek film was released in theaters. Paramount hired the nerd-favorite director JJ Abrams to helm it and tasked him with breathing new life into what was seen by many as an old and tired franchise. Breathe life into it he certainly did. 2009's Star Trek is an action packed, edge of your seat adventure that thrills with visual spectacle, but at which no point forgets that Star Trek is about the characters and their relationships to one another. This, to me, is the film by which all other franchise reboots should be compared to. It's the finest example of a reboot I've ever seen.

1. The Thing

Rotten Tomatoes Score = 80%

The Thing was originally a 1951 film titled The Thing From Another World. As with most 50's monster movie horror films, it's a bit heavy on the cheese factor. Is it fun? Sure. Is it scary? Not at all. Then comes along a guy named John Carpenter in 1982 who decides to remake this fun 50's B-film. The result is one of the greatest horror films of all time. I have never before and never since found another film that so masterfully displays the feelings of isolation that its characters are going through. One by one the unknown monster kills its victims and assumes their form, leaving the survivors to wonder which of their friends is actually their enemy in disguise. Everything about this film is brilliant. From the casting to the costumes to the sets to the bloody special effects, it's quite simply a perfect film.

The Coolest Wedding Rings Ever!

Just looking at these totally amazing wedding rings makes me all giddy inside. I want these so badly. Now if only I could find a woman who would love these rings as much as I do.

(Via Blastr)

Batman: Year One Clip Makes Me Happy

The next DC Animated feature scheduled to be released is an adaptation of the Batman: Year One storyline, in which we go back to Batman's early days where he is just starting out as a costumed crime fighter. Sadly, Kevin Conroy won't be voicing Bruce Wayne/Batman, but I guess he can't be the only guy to ever play Batman for as long as he's alive (although I wish he was).

Otherwise though, this clip makes me very happy. Keeping up with DC's long line of high quality animated films, Batman: Year One looks beautiful and I'm sure will be fun to watch as well. Now if only Warner Brothers was half as good with their live-action outings as they were with their animated ones, the world would be a better place.

Friday Happy Hour

I'll be honest here. Due to my age, my knowledge of the Pokemon franchise isn't all that great. Pokemon came out in 1996, when I was 18 years old. As a result, I just never got into it since it was geared towards younger kids. That doesn't mean I don't know anything about the franchise though. I know that it's a super popular series for geeks slightly younger than myself. I also know that the monsters go through evolutionary changes during their life cycle, becoming larger and more powerful forms of themselves.

To that effect, the wonderful folks over at Drunken Moogle have put together this amazing set of three drinks, named after the different stages of the Charzard pokemon. This leads me to the following question:

If the standard Pokemon catch phrase is "Gotta catch 'em all", would the catchphrase for Pokemon based drinks then be "Gotta drink 'em all"?

I think it really has to be at that point, right?

Ingredients:

Charmander

• 1 splash of grenadine
• 1 oz Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
• .5 oz Bacardi 151

Directions for the Charmander shot: Pour a slash of grenadine into the bottom of a shot glass. Add the Fireball, then top with the Bacardi 151. Light it on fire, then extinguish before drinking.

Charmeleon

• 1 spash of grenadine,
• 1 splash of scotch
• 1 oz Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
• Fill with ginger ale

Directions for the Charmeleon cocktail: Mix all the alcoholic ingredients and then pour over ice in a lowball glass. Top with ginger ale.

Charizard

• 2 oz Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
• 2 splashes of grenadine
• 2 splash of scotch
• 1.5 ounces Bacardi 151
• Fill with ginger ale

Directions for the Charizard drink: Mix all of the alcoholic ingredients, pour into a highball glass and top with ginger ale. If you plan on lighting the Charizard on fire, add the Bacardi 151 last, after the ginger ale, on top of everything else. As always, be careful with flames and don’t try to drink flaming cocktails while still on fire! Fire burns people and stuff and faces.

If Charzard isn't your particular favorite Pokemon, Drunken Moogle also made drink recipes covering the different stages of Bulbasaur and Squirtle as well.

30 Years Of Mario Music In Under 20 Minutes

Youtube user Amanbow has done the whole world a true geek solid and created one of the most amazing video game music mashups of all time. In just under 20 minutes, Amanbow presents music from every Mario game that has been released over the last 30 years.

I'm not just talking the regular Super Mario series. No, I mean anything that had Mario's name on it, or in which Mario himself appeared. This list is thorough enough to include music from Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, Mario Party, the Mario sports games, all of the Game Boy games and more.

If you're a fan of the Mario franchise at all, chances are you'll recognize most of the music contained in this video. And the animation isn't something to overlook either. This video is really entertaining. 18 minutes may be a long time to invest into a youtube video, but trust me, it's worth it.

The Ultimate Pirates Vs. Ninjas Battle

Deviant Art user OutlawInk has created what has to be the most epic Pirates vs. Ninjas fight scene that I've ever seen. It's so epic, in fact, that it includes a total of 80 different characters from various forms of popular culture. The pic above is far too small to view the full awesomeness of this piece of art. In order to view it properly, go HERE to see a high-res version of it.

OutlawInk was also kind enough to provide a key to their work. if you'd like to see just who is who in this epic battle, you can find the key here.

My thanks go to geek extraordinaire Mary Sturhann for pointing this out to me.

Pat's Book Reviews: Robopocalypse

I'm just going to go ahead and get the comparison out of the way first. Robopocalypse is the robot uprising version of World War Z. There's no way to deny that. It seems that Daniel H. Wilson is the Max Brooks of robots. Whereas Mr. Brooks wrote The Zombie Survival Guide, a handbook for surviving a zombie apocalypse, Mr. Wilson wrote How To Survive A Robot Uprising. Typically, this would annoy me about an author as I would just assume that Wilson is copying what Max Brooks does, but just inserts robots instead of zombies. I think the reason that I'm ok with Wilson doing what he does is because, as opposed to Brooks, Wilson has a Ph.D. in robotics, so he clearly loves what he's writing about as much as Brooks does.

As I said, Robopocalypse is very similar to World War Z in that it too is written in a post war manner by a surivor who is now recounting the war and it's highlight moments. Instead of having a UN inspector compiling a report for a counsel like what happens in World War Z, Robopocalypse's narrator is a common foot soldier named Cormac Wallace who stumbles upon a detailed data core shortly after humanity defeats the robot leader who started the war. This data core contains details on how the robot uprising started and follows key figures through the ensuing war that raged across the planet. The book is supposed to be the result of Cormac transcribing what he finds in the data core to paper.

What works best about this book is that unlike World War Z, this story focuses more specifically on a smaller cast of characters, which it follows from shortly before the outbreak of the war to it's completion (or their death along the way). Having a core cast that the reader could connect with and care about added to the emotional drama and tension of the story. When a character dies in Robopocalypse, it means something. That was something World War Z lacked in my opinion. Written as if it was a committee report, it was incapable of adding a deep, personal narrative.

What doesn't work for Robopocalypse is the pacing. It's far too quickly paced in my opinion and the story keeps jumping ahead by months at a time. The book is only 340 pages or so, but it could have easily been 500 or 600 pages and I would have been totally fine with that. The characters are interesting and different, the story has a lot of possibility and the period of the war and it's build up covers almost 4 years of time. As I was reading the book I kept wishing the author would slow down and take more time with certain things. As it was, the book is fun, but it flys by at a breakneck speed. As a result, it loses out on a lot of potential depth it could have had if it had just taken the time to move a little slower.

As for the uprising itself, I very much enjoyed how it all went down. The story is set in a slightly futuristic society where household robots are commonplace and all modern cars are either computer controlled or computer assisted. When Archos, the superintelligent A.I. that begins the uprising, is created he quickly subverts these machines and uses them against humanity. It's a mark of all true science fiction to be a stern warning about mankind's reliance upon technology, and that is a point that is brought home rather brutally in Robopocalypse as literally billions of people are killed by their service robots or are run over by their own cars. It's bloody as hell, but it's a fun read.

Overall, the book makes for a fun, quick read. It lacks the level of detail that Brooks brought to World War Z, but it makes up for that with a more human approach to the storytelling. Robopocalypse is certainly no masterpiece of literature, but it does have high value as being the literary equivalent of a cheesy popcorn action flick. No wonder Stephen Speilberg is in talks to direct a film adaptation of it. This story lends itself beautifully to a silver screen translation. I just wish the book was a little longer.

Final Grade: B-

Behold The Glory That Is White Luke Cage

Ok, I may be a little biased here, but as a skinny white guy who loves to quote 70's blaxploitation films, I can't help but find this fan film about a skinny white guy playing Luke Cage to be absolutely hilarious. Every time he utters a cliche 70's blaxploitation line like, "Sweet Christmas! Didn't someone tell you honkeys not to mess with the one and only Luke Cage?" I can't help but giggle.

Everything about this video is comic gold to me. The music is perfect, as is the costume and the tongue-in-cheek delivery of the dialog. I think I may have very well just gotten an idea on what my halloween costume might be this year.

Happy 45th Birthday Star Trek

45 years ago today (September 8th, 1966), NBC aired the very first episode of Star Trek and the world was first introduced to the combined awesomeness of James Tiberius Kirk and Mr. Spock.

In the almost half-century since that first airing, Star Trek has gone on to become a cornerstone of Sci-fi in popular culture. Without it, we wouldn't have things like Star Wars, BSG, Firefly or just about any other show about a bunch of people travelling through space. So join me tonight in raising a glass of Romulan Ale to the original crew of the USS Enterprise and their continuing mission to seek out new life and new civilizations. May they boldly go where no one has gone before for a long time to come!

UPDATE: To see a sweet timeline of the history of Star Trek, go here.

(Infographic via Space.com)

Classic Movie Monsters + Professional Wrestling = Monster Brawl (aka The Greatest Movie Ever)

I don't remember if I've ever said this before on Geek-tastic, but I'm a huge fan of professional wrestling. I've been watching the WWE ever since back when it was called the WWF and legends like Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man Randy Savage were fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship. I still watch it to this day and am a big fan of guys like CM Punk and Zack Ryder.

I'm also a huge fan of horror movies, especially those involving classic movie monsters like Frankenstein or The Mummy.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, because something I never even dreamed of happening has somehow come into being. The world of professional wrestling has been merged with the world of horror movie monsters into a single product. That product? The movie Monster Brawl.

This is Monster Brawl's premise, according to the movie's website:

Set in the tradition of a Pay-Per-View main event, comes a grotesque and hilarious fight to the death featuring a cast of eight classic combatants in all. Along with their colorful managers, these Monsters compete in visceral bloody combat in the ring to determine the most powerful monster of all time.

Eight classic movie monsters fighting in a pro wrestling tournament to determine who is the most powerful monster ever?!?!?! Hell yeah!!! I can't wait to see this movie. Especially when your list of combatants are a cyclops, a witch, Swamp Thing, a werewolf, a campire a mummy, a zombie and the Frankenstein monster. The cast is pretty cool too. Dave Foley from The Kids In The Hall? Horror movie icon Lance Henrikson? Wrestling legend Kevin Nash and "The Mouth of The South" Jimmy Hart (one of the greatest wrestling managers of all time)?

Seriously, how did I not even hear about this film until today. Dear god I hope this is available on DVD in time for Halloween. If it is, I'll be doing a Halloween screening of this for me and my friends, no doubts about it. Just check out how bad ass this poster is.

Random Awesomeness

Thanks go to my friend Michael Saul for pointing this out to me.

(Via Imgur)

Of Comic Books And Reboots: My Rant On DC's New 52

A while back, DC Comics announced something rather amazing, which I haven't really covered here at Geek-tastic yet at all. They said that they would soon be rebooting their entire universe and relaunching all of their major titles starting with new #1 issues for all of them. They dubbed these brand new titles as The New 52. As you can imagine, this sent shockwaves through the fanboy community and in less time than it takes you to say "nerd rage", comic fans everywhere took to the internet and ranted and raved about how horrible a decision this was, and how dare DC wipe away nearly a century of continuity to try to win over new readers.

For more detailed information on the New 52 and all of the reboot details, you should check out DC's website where there is a ton of information to read and pretty comic art to enjoy.

As I said, I've stayed quiet on this topic since it was first announced, which as a nerd blogger is a rather strange thing to do. Here is one of the biggest comic book stories of the last few years, and I haven't devoted even a single word on my site to it until now. Why did I stay quiet on this topic, you ask? Well, to be quite honest I wasn't sure what to make of DC's reboot when I first heard about it, and I wanted more information before I began ranting and raving. I also had mixed feelings on the idea itself and I needed time to process those feelings before I could eloquently express my thoughts on DC's bold new direction. I've had the time I need though, and I've collected the additional information that I wanted. I've finally come up with something to say about this big reboot, and . . . well . . . it's probably not going to sit well with a lot of my fellow comic book fans out there. There's no real easy way to say this, so I might as well come out and say it. Here we go.

I am 100% behind DC Comics on this and think a full universe reboot is a wonderful idea.

Not only that, I think that this should have happened a long time ago, and I really hope that this works for them and that Marvel Comics will soon be following up with a full scale universe reboot of it's own. If you are wondering how I, a life-long comic book reader can willfully advocate for every DC comic book story I've ever read being undone, the answer to that is simple. In fact, it boils down to two basic points.

1. The Future

I want all you to think hard on a few questions I'm about to ask you. I want you to seriously think about these for a minute. When is the last time you walked into a comic book store and saw someone under the age of 15 in there buying comics? When is the last time you saw a kid in a park reading a comic? When was the last time you even heard of a kid you knew who had gotten into comics on their own, without their parents pushing it on them when they were younger?

I can't speak for everyone, but for me the answers to those questions are all the same. A long, long time ago. As a kid, I'll admit it, I got into comics because of my older brother. When and how he started reading comics, I'm not certain. I know my parents didn't read comics though. This was something that only we kids did. I remember going into the comic book store and seeing a bunch of other kids my age buying comics too. All of my friends read comics too. We'd spend hours upon hours discussing them at recess or at lunch. As I've gotten older, I've noticed that the average age of the people in the comic book stores has gotten oder with me. In fact, it's still people my age whom I mainly see when I go into a store to see what cool new stuff there is to buy. I'm 33 years old now, and to this day when I walk into a comic book store I see guys and gals that are in their late 20's to late 30's on the average. Every now and then I'll see a fan in their early 20's and some older fans in their 40's or higher, but generally it's people in my generation or the one before or right after it. I don't see kids in comic book stores anymore.

I know I'm not the only one who noticed this. DC Comics seems to have noticed it too. Their average reader age keeps climbing higher and higher, and there isn't a large group of younger readers who will replace them as we eventually get older and start dying off. It's freaking DC's management out, so they've decided to do something desperate to get kids reading comics. They are thinking in the extreme long term, say another 30 to 50 years out. Who will be reading comics then? How can a paper-based media compete for the attention of kids and adults who will be raised in a digital age where movies, music and even novels are all delivered to them digitally on demand? There are all huge questions that the folks in charge of the comics industry need to be asking themselves if they wish for their businesses to still be alive for generations to come.

Aside from the much discussed actual rebooting of the comics themselves is also the fact that DC Comics will be the first publisher to deliver comics digitally to mobile devices like the ipad on the same day that they are released in comic book stores. This is all part of making things more accessible to a wider, younger audience who are tech savvy, and who are much more likely to download comics to their tablet devices than they are to driving down to the local comic store and picking up books on a weekly basis. The word accessibility is really at the heart of what DC is trying to do here, which actually brings me to my next point.

2. Continuity Is A Killer

Many of today's biggest comic franchises have been running for so long, they are drowning under the weight of their own past stories. The folks who write the web comic Penny Arcade refer to it as "dreaded continuity" and it is making a large number of the comic industry's biggest titles completely inaccessible to new readers. I couldn't even imagine being a kid today and picking up an X-Men comic for the first time. I'd have no idea what the hell is going on, or who anyone is. The same goes for Spider-man and Batman. Today's comic stories are so convoluted and so dependent on knowing about what has come before that they are a turn off to little kids who only want to read about Spider-man punching this month's villain in the face and stopping their evil plan to rob a bank or destroy Manhattan or something like that.

This is all sort of related to the first point. An aging comic audience has demanded more adult, complex stories that matches their mental level. The problem is, these complex, convoluted stories are keeping kids away from trying out new titles. Do you know what originally got me reading X-men comics back in the day? A franchise reboot. How many of my fellow 30-something comic fans remember this?

That's the cover of X-Men #1, released in 1991 (when I was 13 years old). It was an attempt on Marvel's part at the time to make the Uncanny X-Men series and their characters more accessible to newer readers. You know what? It worked. Over the years I've spoken to a ton of people who cite this as their jumping on point for the X-series of books. While this didn't retcon past storylines, it didn't really focus on the past either. During this era, the X-Books focused on newer villains and new characters like Gambit and Cable to tell their stories. Retconning histories isn't a new phenomenon though. It, like everything else in comics, has been done before. Shall we recall a little event DC once did called Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Even Marvel has gotten into the reboot act on a large scale before where whole histories and continuities were thrown out the window. That's what the whole Marvel Ultimate universe was about. They started their big lines like Spider-Man, The Avengers and The X-Men over from scratch, with absolutely zero history or continuity whatsoever. And again, it worked beautifully. The Ultimate line was very successful for Marvel. The first Spider-man movie was even heavily influenced by the Ultimate Spider-man storyline, and the upcoming Avengers movie is heavily steeped in The Ultimates (aka the Ultimate name for The Avengers) stories.

Does this team look a little familiar to you?

What makes history deleting reboots like Marvel's Ultimate line work is that it allows for brand new stories that no one has ever seen before. It frees writers from having to fit their stories into established universes and allows them to play with characters and settings to create wholly new universes where both new readers can jump on and old readers can enjoy as different, new versions of the characters they know and love. I know that last statement is a bit of a stretch, as comic fans generally loathe change, but it does happen from time to time. Growing up, my favorite character has always been Spider-man. I'd read his books my whole life and when the new Ultimate Spider-man series came out I'll admit that I was very wary at first. Once I started reading it though, I began enjoying it even more than the regular series books. It was something new, something fresh, yet it was still something wholly Spider-man. It was a fun, lighthearted series at the start. Young teen aged Peter Parker didn't have the world on his shoulders like older, 20-something Peter did. This leads me to my third point.

3. Comics Are Just Too Damn Dark For Kids These Days

Comics have always had a bit of darkness to them. Even in the 50's, when Batman comics were awash in bright colors everywhere and campy-ness reigned supreme, The Joker was still a crazy killer. However, they didn't show blood as much and you didn't have Alan Moore style violence where he was shooting people in the face at point blank range with panels that showed the blood shooting out of the back of someone's head.

A lot of comics are just too damn dark these days. I don't have any kids myself, so maybe I'm a bit off base here, but I wouldn't go letting my 8 year old kids read today's Batman books without reading them myself first to see if they were ok. Going back to point #1 again, an aging comic audience has lead to more adult-centered books with graphic violence and stories. Comics seem to have forgotten that you can make things fun and interesting without going dark constantly. Look at the cartoon show Batman: The Brave and The Bold. The writers of that show have crafted something that simultaneously lighthearted and campy, yet still quintessentially Batman at its heart that even older fans can enjoy. Why isn't this being done more often in comics.

Don't misunderstand me here. I'm not pushing for adult comics to go away at all. As an adult comic book fan, I love having adult level superhero comics to read. All I'm saying is that there is room for both in the main Marvel and DC universes. DC started it originally with their Vertigo line and Marvel quickly followed suit with their Marvel Max lines. There's no reason for dark, gritty superhero stories to go away, I just wish that those stories didn't bleed over from their respective sub-lines to the main titles, which really should be aimed at attracting younger readers. We adult fans frequently forget that we were once kids too, and the reason we got into reading comics in the first place is because they catered to people our age at that time.

In the end, I think what DC is doing is ballsy, and I fully support them in what they are doing. If there is any one complaint I have about The New 52 though, it is this . . . .

They aren't going far enough.

In an attempt to please long time fans, DC is trying to walk a tightrope act where they are retconning some older stories, but not others. Some histories are being re-written, some aren't. This, to me, is them pussyfooting around and not fully doing what needs to be done. If you're going to do a full on hardcore universe reboot where you are wiping out all established continuity up to this point, you don't go half-assed about it. You man up and take the plunge. You go all out and wipe everything away at once. Have some big climactic story arc mini-series where something huge happens, and it reverts your entire universe (and I mean ENTIRE universe) back to square one!

That's what I would do if I was in charge of DC Comics right now. I'd revert everything back to the very beginning where you'd see new storylines such as:

• Superman #1 - A young, inexperienced, rural farmboy & reporter named Clark Kent walks into the Daily Planet for his first day on the job where he is introduced to and teamed up by his editor with a more veteran reporter named Lois Lane. His first story? Covering a large press conference for billionaire industrialist Lex Luthor who is showing off giant new military robots that he has developed for the US Government, which promptly go haywire and cause a mysterious new hero named Superman to appear and save the day for the very first time.

• Batman #1 - A brooding young Billionare named Bruce Wayne has just returned home to Gotham City for the first time after years of training abroad to make himself the ultimate crime fighting machine. Deciding that he needs to strike fear into the hearts of Gotham's criminal underworld (and to protect himself and those who know him), he puts on a mask and goes out into the night as Batman.

• Wonder Woman #1 - A beautiful young warrior named Diana is forced to leave her island home for the first time to help save it from being destroyed. Upon leaving the island, she learns of the outside world and its problems. Despite being forbidden to do so by her mother, she decides to stay in this new place because she feels that it is her duty to use her power to help those who need saved.

• Justice League #1 - After investigating the same case from their respective cities, Batman and Superman meet for the first time and are forced to work together. Along the way, they meet up with other heroes whose help they need to save the day. By the end of they day, they realize that some problems are too big for them to handle individually, so they decide to work together to help save the world.

See? It's not that hard to do. Just wipe the slate clean and start fresh. Will you piss off a ton of fan boys and girls? Yes, of course you will. Bitching is one of the favorite pass times of comic fans. No matter what you do, you'll be pissing someone off. However, will those same fans stay loyal to you so long as your new stories are great and you stay true to what makes your characters who they are? Yes, they will. And along the way you might even pick up some new readers to boot.

Finally, Something I can Be Genuinely Happy About

It's been a rough week, to be sure. What with George Lucas messing with the Star Wars films again (he has altered the films, I pray he won't alter them any further) and now Superman running around without his signature red underwear, it's been a hard week to be a geek.

Thank god then for this new Avengers promo art that was released yesterday by Marvel Studios. It's gorgeous. Just looking at it makes me happy, and you can even get a giant version to make this your brand new desktop Wallpaper by going here. It's definitely set as my wallpaper now. So happy!

Thank you Marvel for reminding me that not all superhero movies have god awful costuming choices. Sure, Hawkeye's costume could be a little better, but who really cares about him anyways, am I right?

Now the only thing I am waiting for is an actual cast photo that looks like this. Promo art is awesome and all, but I want an actual movie poster with this much awesomeness going on in it.

Yet More Stupid Superhero Costuming Decisions

A number of behind-the-scenes pictures have recently been released from the upcoming new Superman film titled Man of Steel. In these pictures, we've finally gotten a good, close up (and non photoshopped to hell) look at Henry Cavill as the last son of Krypton and . . . well . . . I'll be honest, I'm disappointed. Not horrified or saddened, just a little disappointed.

Seriously Warner Bros., how god damned hard is it to translate Superman's costume to the silver screen. It's the single most iconic superhero costume of all time. It's the archetype upon which generations of other heros' costumes have been based. Why do you feel the need to go and change it so much.

Superman's costume is really, really simple. Blue skintight suit, red cape, red boots, yellow belt and red underwear with a big ass "S" on the chest. Why is that simple recipe so impossible for you to do. No red underwear on the new suit? Seriously? Why? And what's that thing on the suit above his crotch? A belt buckle? He's not wearing a god damned belt!!! What purpose does that thing serve? And what's with the details around the wrists & that stripe thing going down his legs? Why is any of that there?

As I said though, these changes just disappoint me. They're not a deal breaker. And I'll be honest here. There are some things about this pic that I actually really like. For example, I really like how the top of the cape is set into the costume to sort of frame Henry Cavill's face. Speaking of his face (and hair), he actually looks good as Superman. I was worried about the hair in that first promo pic they released, but his hair in this set pic is a lot closer to the classic Superman look. I like it. Cavill also has the classic superhero cheek and bone structure. He looks like a classic hero, much like I feel Chris Evans did in Captain America.

Also, just look at the size of that guy. Sure, some of that may be the costume, but I'm willing to bet most of that muscle is Cavill himself. I must say I am really liking this trend of bulked up Actors like Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and the previously mentioned Chris Evans playing superheros. It's nice to see that not all heroes in films have to have costumes with rubber molded muscles built into them (I'm looking at you Dark Knight). If any roles in Hollywood should go to talented, well built actors or actresses, it's superhero roles. It just fits into the whole genre to have main characters with chiseled abs and gigantic pecs, shoulders and biceps.

Will this costume keep me from watching and enjoying the new Superman movie (assuming the story is good)? Absolutely not. Will I still wish during the entire film that Supes was running around with his red underwear proudly showing outside of his pants? You're damn right I will be.