Yearly Archives: 2011
My DC Rejiggering Retrospective
So the first full month of DC’s revamp has come and gone, and October will bring us all new #2 issues. Sales wise, it’s been great for DC Comics. All 52 new comic series have sold out, with some going back for multiple printings. The hype has paid off, they’ve sold a ton of comic book. Huzzah and kudos.
But what happens with issue #3? Or issue #5? Or #12?
I guess we’re going to find out, DC most of all.
People already seem to dislike the new Superman
They hype isn’t going to last forever. I’m sure DC realizes this and has a plan. Someday the sales of their books are going to drop back down to pre-revamp numbers. The lame, uninteresting titles will get cancelled and they’ll be back to the way things used to be: starting random new series whenever, bringing in new writers on popular titles and changes in art and story abound. Heck, some of the creators on the new books are already switching out. The well of support will dry up. But that’s an article for another today. Now that we’re through the first month, I figure I’d write about how I made it through the DC Rejiggering.
Hit the jump to find out my thoughts on each of the 52 titles.
Nightwing to Appear in Arkham City
The game developer Rocksteady is doing their darndest to keep the secrets under wraps for the upcoming game Batman: Arkham City. But leave it to random websites to casually reveal these secrets as if they didn’t think they were secrets at all. First, Best Buy revealed that Robin would be a playable character. Now some website that lists video game achievements has revealed that Nightwing will also be a playable character. We’re less than a month away from the game’s release and Rocksteady was able to keep the secret this long.
Well no more! Check out these two achievements:
Rather skimpy proof, but proof nonetheless!
This definitely explains why Robin will be Tim Drake (my favorite Robin). I also think this more than makes up for the lack of any Robin references at all in Batman: Arkham Asylum. As a Robin fanboy, that really ground my gears at the time. But Rocksteady is making up for that fan faux pas by making Robin and now Nightwing playable! Not in the campaign, only in challenge maps, but I’m more than fine with that! Bring it on!
For those who don’t know, Nightwing is the original Robin, Dick Grayson. He’s the circus acrobat whose parents were killed, and he was adopted by Batman. He was in Batman: The Animated Series and was played by Chris O’Donnell in the mid-90s Batman movies.
Well in the comics, Dick eventually grew up into a young teen and rebelled against Batman. He struck out on his own and created a brand new superhero identity: Nightwing.
Still has that boyish Robin charm
That eventually cleared the way for Tim Drake to become the new Robin. And that’s your comic history lesson for today. Thanks to the website www.PS3Trophies.org for the spoiler.
Review: Gears of War 3
Well that was awesome. The final game of the Gears of War trilogy comes and goes with a bang, a boom, a splatter and the rev of a good chainsaw. But most of all, it was a blast. Fun to play, great for multiplayer mayhem and with a pretty good story to boot. I recently finished the story mode campaign, but I plan on playing the multiplayer modes for the next several months. It’s got a great lasting appeal. Gears of War 3 is just as hectic, epic and shotguntastic as the first two games.
So no trilogy curse, as far as I’m concerned. I give it a 5 out of 5: Great.
Should I have expected anything less? This was one of my most highly anticipated games of the year, and it’s lived up to every expectation. Gears 1 was the first game I bought on my X-Box 360, and Gears 2 came along a few years later. While the story hasn’t been Shakespeare, the gameplay has been top notch in game after game after game. That’s not to say the story is lame. It may have started off as simple in the first game, but by this third chapter, we were dealing with real depth and character emotion. I was definitely shocked on more than one occasion with the story this time around. And the death of Dom’s wife in Gears 2 was quite sad.
But we’re here to talk about Gears of War 3, maybe the best of the trilogy.
Last Round of DC Rejiggering Reviews
The final week of all-new #1 issues has come and gone, and the DC Rejiggering stands fully revealed at last! I plan on doing a full retrospective later in the week, so for now I’ll just focus on capsule reviews for the titles I picked up this week. We actually have a pretty good crop, with DC seemingly saving some of the best for last. I also got to finally read Teen Titans, starring my favorite DC character, Tim Drake. And I’m confident in saying that I’m happy with his new status quo. Red Robin as leader of the Teen Titans is a good direction for him, compared to just Red Robin solo hero from before the rejiggering. I like the costume change too.
New costume/Old Costume
But I’ll get to the larger retrospective later. For now, on to the reviews!
Doctor Whuess and Other Fun
Lazy posting day, for me at least, but randomly stumbling upon two very different but two very awesome Doctor Who pictures requires them both to be posted. Such is the level of my geekery. First is a mashup of Doctor Who and Doctor Suess.
He's just all manner of adorable
The second is a T-shirt that I very much want to buy. You can order it from Shirtoid if you’re so interested.
I love the bow tie. Bow ties are cool.
Henchman-4-Hire 