The last few Thor trailers haven’t really had a lot to say in terms of Thor the character, just how people around him react to him. We haven’t gotten a chance to see the oblivious oaf side of the Odinson, a necessary counterpart to his more stalwart and heroic side. Well, in this latest trailer, we get a little more action and a little more oaf. And Kat Dennings taking out the depowered god of thunder with a taser. This I like. We even get the indication that Loki is the villain of the film, not just a side character! Not that followers of the film didn’t already know that, but at least the trailer is making it obvious to the average viewer. It’s a big summer for comic book movies — let’s hope Thor makes an impact. Read more…
Various outlets are reporting that Friday Night Lights star Adrianne Palicki has been cast as Diana Prince in NBC’s upcoming Wonder Woman television series. The joint venture between writer David E. Kelley and Jeffrey Reiner had a bumpy start, but after being passed on by a number of networks, NBC finally came to the rescue. Unfortunately, like rival network Fox, NBC is often quick to pull the plug if a show doesn’t hit the ground running. We’ll just have to hope that Palicki has the skills to match her striking looks — after all, anyone can dye their hair black, but handling that Lasso of Truth? Well, that remains to be seen.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 17, 2011 in Videogames
Xbox 360 owners are in for a bit of treat when they pre-order Larin Studios’ upcoming expansion for their hit RPG Divinity II, entitled The Dragon Knight Saga. Those of you who were unfortunate enough to own the previous title for your console may be happy to know that this upcoming release will feature a remastered version, complete with new content, an improved engine and support for the Flames of Vengeance add-on. On top of that, Atlus, the game’s North American publisher has decided to sell it for the low price of $39.99, and those of you who pre-order will recieve an art book and soundtrack to boot.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 16, 2011 in Animation, Fandom
You know how when you go to a really popular anime convention that there might be say a 100 people waiting on line to get their badge? Well back in the 80s those 100 people would be pretty much the sum total of anime fandom in New York City! Thanks to Saul Trabal (show in the photo above) we have a wonderful little photo essay from that era when anime was limited to getting VHS tapes from friends of friends who had pen pals in Japan: Read more…
Check out this fantastic little mash-up by writer & graphic designer Ben Huber. Anyone who’s a fan of Baccano! will recognize the characters but the image is quite clearly paying homage to a certain poster from Christopher Nolan’s box office hit, Inception. On top of that, you’ll really appreciate the attention to detail, as while you may be unable to see the text without enlarging the image, those credits are completely accurate. It sort of blows my mind that he had time to do that, but it’s certainly cool that he did.
Last week, fellow fanboy Mike Sacco posted the X-Men: First Class trailer that premiered on the film’s official facebook. Like most of you, I was pretty excited about the new direction the series will be taking with this prequel of sorts. The trailer itself did a great job of selling us on the premise — the young Charles Xavier befriends Erik Lensherr and forms the original X-Men, amidst what we came to know as the cold war. Recently, IGN broke down the trailer piece by piece to show us all the little easter eggs we missed the first time around, and if you’re big on Marvel lore, or some hints about the plot, you’ll want to give it a watch. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Feb 15, 2011 in Videogames
If you’re a Playstation Plus user — and I know most of you aren’t — you’re in for a treat today. Sony passed along a free copy of the PS3/PSP mini The Flying Hamster as their gift to you — just check your PS3 message box for a note containing an attachment that’ll allow you to download it for free.I have to admit, I wasn’t very optimistic with the initial offerings for Playstation Plus subscribers. For a paid subscription service, Xbox Live! looked far more attractive, with a plethora of content fuled by the seemingly endless stream of income generated by the enormous user base.
Visitors from all around flocked to San Francisco’s Union Square Park yesterday to catch a glimpse of Lawrence Noble’s giant fiber glass Yoda heart. The attraction is part of San Francisco’s Heroes and Hearts fundraiser to benefit San Francisco General’s Hospital Foundation — an independent NPO that supports patient care at the city’s largest hospital. I’m glad they finished it just in time for Valentine’s Day, but I really wish they had gotten to word out sooner. As you can see from the video above, people have been posing for pictures with it all day. No word on how long this temporary attraction will be on display, but if you do visit, don’t be that guy who has to throw up the Vulcan salute. It’s just not cool.
In hindsight over 40 years later Star Trek is clearly the most successful science fiction television series of all time — but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 70s (before Star Wars) it was looking like Star Trek was pretty much dead. The only sign of life the series was in 1974 when Filmation ran a well done but poorly rated Saturday morning animated series. But then on September 13th, 1975 sci fi fans had a new option, and for this fanboy Space:1999 captured my heart for the next two years that it ran. Here are nine reasons why I think the show deserves some respect in the 21st Century: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2011 in Comic Books
Above: “Hurry up Green Arrow: It’s our turn to kiss Lois Lane NOW!”
Most of us know Superman thanks to his many appearances in movies and television shows — but once upon a time the man of steel was mostly a creature of print. And in that tradition DC Comics had to expand the franchise as much as they could: And one of the results was Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane a comic book series that lasted from 1958 until 1974. The cover art and content of each issue was quite silly by today’s standards — in fact after a while you almost feel sorry for poor Superman: Read more…