The Universe Hates Me

I come to you today in sorrow and rage, dear readers. Once I was a man who believed in fairness and joy, who believed that the universe was here to help us all in our times of need. I had always treated the universe well. I respected its awesome power – but it has betrayed me. It has played a cruel trick on my heart, casting aside my love and respect, and replacing it with an icy blackness that tears at my very soul. The universe has hurt me. It has hurt me deep.

You may recall my overwhelming joy last Summer when I learned that one of my all-time favorite comic book characters, Phil Urich, was going to get an action figure. Phil Urich was my Peter Parker. He was the affable young superhero whose Green Goblin series brought me into comics in the 90s. And for the first and probably last time ever, Phil was going to get an action figure in his Hobgoblin persona. He’s such an obscure, minor character that never in my wildest dreams did I think he’d ever get any sort of action figure.

Do you remember, dear readers? Do you  remember that moment when the universe shined its light upon me and gave me a gift as pure as the fallen snow?

For never has there been something so beautiful

That moment was lies and deceit, dear readers. That moment is gone now. Only sorrow remains.

For you see, I was perusing the Internet the other day when I stumbled upon this post at i09, which linked to this person’s photobucket account. It seems the Hobgoblin action figure is going to be up for sale soon, and some people have already gotten their copy.

But here’s the thing…Hobgoblin is a build-a-figure.

What’s that, you may ask? What could that possibly mean? It’s simple, really. Instead of simply buying a Hobgoblin action figure off the shelf, like a rational human being, the Hobgoblin figure has been dissected, and the pieces have been scattered into different packages. There are 6 figures in this line of toys, and a piece of Hobgoblin has been placed into each one. This means I have to buy all 6 figures in order to then assemble Hobgoblin.

Though I do like that Ultimate Spider-Woman

Do you see the travesty in this, dear readers? Do you see it?! In order to get the one action figure I want, I now have to buy SIX action figures! That’s going to cost $60-$70 instead of the simple $10 of a single action figure! Sixty-freakin’-dollars! What do they think I’m made of, money? Because it sure ain’t money!

And on top of that, I’ve got to somehow find all six action figures! Do you realize how hard that might be? Action figures like this are a specialty item these days. You can’t find every figure in every store, sometimes there are store exclusives, or they’re sold out of all the cool ones!

What are we to do, my friends? What hope do we have in this life against such a cruel and twisted universe?

This is why we can’t have nice things.

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Sweet Avengers Trailer Mash-Ups

Oh Internet, how I love you. You deliver us joyous videos like this Star Wars/Age of Ultron mash-up.

This bit of greatness comes courtesy The Unusual Suspect, the genius that delivered the previous Star Wars/Guardians of the Galaxy mash-up. This man is doing the Internet Lord’s work, and we are all better for it. This Ultron video was especially good.

But wait, there’s more! How about this mash-up of The Avengers and Watchmen?

Considering Disney owns both Age of Ultron and Star Wars, they should hire this guy and make these videos legit marketing for both movies! General audiences would eat this stuff up! And The Unusual Suspect needs to become more famous.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/24/15

Time to ease off the massive reviews, finally! We’ve just got a few comics this week – or at least the few comics I was in the mood to buy and read – and they’re all Batman and Spider-Man comics! How cool is that? Those two are arguably my two favorite mainstream superheroes, so this is kind of a big deal.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Amazing Spider-Man #13 for another entertaining chapter of Spider-Verse, though it’s not necessarily a spectacular standout. This is still just a Big Event I enjoy reading.

I’ve missed you, Superior Spider-Man!

We’ve also got the Spider-Verse tie-in that is Scarlet Spiders, as well as new issues of Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin. In fact, I didn’t hate this week’s Batman Eternal for once! I would say this is a solidly cool week.

Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #13, Batman and Robin #38, Batman Eternal #42 and Scarlet Spiders #3.

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Gamer Girl & Vixen – Punching Out a Script

Good news, everybody! This week, co-writer Kristi McDowell and I will have completed the first draft of our 100 (or so) page graphic novel for Gamer Girl & Vixen. We’d originally planned the story as a 6-issue mini-series, but minds changed, ideas shifted, and now we’re going to have it all in one big, wonderful collection. This tpb is going to sit proudly on my shelf — and hopefully yours too — for the rest of my life, a testament to kicking butt, doing good work and making your dreams come true.

So I thought this week I’d share with you all a little bit about the writing process.

The fan art that won Gemma Moody the job!

I can’t exactly post the entire script on my blog, that would give everything away! But I think I can share a page or two, along with the accompanying art, so you can see how we go from the written word to the drawn picture. It’s a neat process, and I’ve definitely learned so much about making comics just from doing it myself.

So join me after the jump to get a crash course in scripting Gamer Girl & Vixen!

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Supergirl Has Been Cast, Should Supergirl Become a Thing!

I’m still generally unsure about what to make of the upcoming Supergirl TV show on CBS. Apparently the show has a series commitment, so it’s definitely going to happen, but it just seems so unreal to me at this point for some reason. Maybe I still can’t accept that we live in a world where DC superhero shows are happening and are amazing!

Despite my inability to grasp reality, CBS has gone and cast actress Melissa Benoist as the Girl of Steel! She was a breakout star on Glee, and appeared in the movie Whiplash. Anybody see Whiplash? I hear it’s good.

“But she’s not blonde!” – Internet nerds

The show is going to be an hour-long drama, similar to Arrow and The Flash, though there is some concern whether or not it will share the same universe. Supergirl will be about Kara Zor-El at age 24, using the Earth name ‘Kara Danvers’. They’re really going all out on the Krypton/comic book stuff, which is great, though no word yet on whether or not Superman exists in this show. Kara will have spent her whole life hiding her powers, but a big event exposes her to the public, and she starts to become a superhero – likely with some relationship shenanigans.

If a Supergirl TV show really happens, you better believe I’ll be there to watch it!

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