Heroes Graphic Nover Hardcover
September 5, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Curious about some of the details that occur between scenes or episodes in NBCs hit series Heroes? This additional content was made available for free in a series of short digital comics available for free on the Heroes site (unfortunately not in CBR or CBZ).
Now, those digital comics are being delivered by DC and their Wildstorm label in a 240 page hardcover starting October 24th! Even better, it’s only $29.99. If you are on top of things, you can also order from Discount Comic Book Service, preorders go for $14.99 there! It’s on my pull list and I can’t wait.
This stunning hardcover collects the amazing online comics based on the smash-hit, Emmy Award-nominated NBC show HEROES! This volume — featuring two stunning covers by comics legends Jim Lee and Alex Ross — also includes an introduction by Masi Oka (Hiro), all 34 chapters of Season One, and Tim Sale’s artwork as seen on the show.
Tags: comics, dc, graphic novel, hardcover, heroes, nbc, show, television, tv, wildstorm
Kristen Bell Joins Heroes as Elle
August 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Kristen Bell, star from the amazing yet canceled Veronica Mars, will be staring in a few Heroes episodes this fall! Bell will play Elle a “mysterious young lady with ties to the supposed death of Peter, H.R.G.’s past and the future of Claire. Elle makes her mark right away, by committing a serious crime.” It is unclear yet if she will be a good or evil character, as is often the case with Heroes ensemble cast of characters.
Bell’s portrayal of the young detective Veronica Mars for three seasons on UPN/CW sky rocketed that show to the top of my must see show list. I’m insanely excited to see her joining my favorite remaining show this season.
Tags: claire, crime, cw, elle, fall, heroes, kristen bell, mars, nbc, peter, sexy, television, tv, upn, veronica mars
Fantastic Four 2 Rise of the Silver Surfer: TV Spot
February 27, 2007 | 1 Comment
This sweet TV ad ran during Monday night’s Heroes episode. There are multiple indirect references to Galactus leading us to hope he will in fact make his debut in this film. I am now more excited about this movie than I ever would have expected.
Tags: comic, comic book, fantastic four, Galactus, heroes, movie, Rise of the Silver Surfer, Silver Surfer, tv ad, tv spot
Spider-Man Pewter Chess Set
August 14, 2006 | 6 Comments
SOTA Toys is releasing a $499 pewter Spider-Man themed chess set this August. I have to admit, the geek in me was intrigued… at first.
I really like the board itself. It’s themed like a rooftop in fairly ornate detail. This includes a non-flat surface creating a much more three dimensional and real experience. I was surprised to have not seen this idea sooner, it’s just brilliant.
The cast for pieces is good, at least on first glance:
Heroes
King: Spider-man (red & blue)
Queen: Symbiote Spider-man (black)
Knight: Punisher
Knight: Moon Knight
Bishop: Daredevil
Bishop: Black Cat
Rook: Cloak & Dagger
Rook: Blade
Pawn: Spider Tracer
Villains
King: Green Goblin
Queen: Doctor Octopus
Knight: Scorpion
Knight: Sandman
Bishop: Electro
Bishop: Lizard
Rook: Venom
Rook: Rhino
Pawn: Spider Slayer
This list is where I became frustrated. To begin with, why have both red & blue suit and black suit Spider-Man? What a terrible cop out. Let’s instead put Black Cat in that spot. Hell, if Spider-Man wasn’t also Peter Parker Black Cat would still be attached to Spidey. Alright, don’t like Black Cat? How about Spider-Girl? Or one of the three Spider-Woman characters? Surely any of these would be better. I’ve got no love for the clone-saga, but frankly I’d take Scarlet Spider over two Spider-Man’s on the chess board…
Next, what’s with Moon Knight?!? I suppose they fought alongside each other occasionally, but I’d much rather see Human Torch, Silver Sable, or even Firestar in this lineup. Cloak and Dagger seemed strange at first, until I realized they first appeared in a Spider-Man comic, leading me to accept them far more readily. The rest of the heroes are good choices.
On to the villains… this is a tough one. Spider-Man has one of the deepest rogue galleries of any super hero I’ve ever encountered. The ones chosen here are a solid list. At first I really wanted a female in the “Queen” slot, but as I poked around in my head, I couldn’t come up with an A-list (or even B-list) female villain for Spidey. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not free of complaint when it comes to the villain list…
First off, we have Blade on the good side, but no Morbius on the bad? Who did Blade show up to fight? The dude kills vampires exclusively!
This lack of match-up has me concerned for Daredevil, Punisher, Black Cat, Cloak and Dagger, and Moon Knight. These guys all fight organized crime. That’s their shared niche and where Spidey teams up with this crew. Where are the major crime villains? Where’s Kingpin? Tombstone? Hammerhead? The Enforcers?
As I said before, there are a lot of villains, so I can understand them leaving some out. What I don’t get is why, knowing this, they would decide to make all the pawns the same? One or two unique spider-slayers is tolerable, but why not pull some other thugs up as pawns when you got all these other big names to choose from: Beetle, Chameleon, Carnage, Shocker, Hydro Man, Mysterio, Morbius, Man Wolf, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture, or Hobgoblin?
Back on the hero side, I’d love to see them use regular people, friends, and family as pawns instead of the lame spider tracers. For instance, take your pick from these: Mary Jane, J Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, Robbie Robertson, or Harry Osborn. Wouldn’t that be a lot more fun? Imagine having to sacrifice Gwen Stacy to take down the Green Goblin. It just begs to be setup this way!
In conclusion, with the stiff $499 price tag, they could have, should have, gone the extra mile to make this chess set irresistible to all fans. At this price they need to do something, their target market will all have similar complaints to mine… Save your money or buy more comics.
Tags: "black suit", aunt may, Beetle, Betty Brant, black cat, blade, Carnage, Chameleon, chess, cloak, Cloak and Dagger, dagger, daredevil, doc ock, Doctor Octopus, electro, enforcers, firestar, flash thompson, game, goblin, Green Goblin, gwen stacy, hammerhead, harry osborn, hero, heroes, hobgoblin, human torch, Hydro Man, j jonah jameson, kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, lizard, Man Wolf, mary jane, moon knight, Morbius, Mysterio, organized crime, osborn, pewter, prowler, punisher, rhino, Robbie Robertson, Sandman, scarlet spider, Scorpion, Shocker, silver sable, spider slayer, spider tracer, spider-girl, spider-man, spider-woman, spiderman, spidey, the enforcers, tombstone, vampire, vampires, venom, villain, villains, Vulture
Heroes Trailer for Nintendo Wii
July 23, 2006 | 2 Comments
This is the trailer for the upcoming game Heroes for the Nintendo Wii. The game studio who created this is the same that created Killer 7. The visual style is similar, and that is to say really artsy, but all kinds of cool. I’m not 100% certain what type of game this is, (fighter? action/adventure?), but it looks very graphic and definitely in the mature category.
Add one more to the list of games I’m eagerly anticipating for the big N’s next generation console…
Tags: game, game trailer, games, heroes, killer 7, Nintendo, nintendo wii, trailer, video game, wii
Secret Wars
January 2, 2006 | 8 Comments
After reading and feeling somewhat letdown by House of M, I felt I needed to go back and read the granddaddy of all major company wide super hero crossovers, Secret Wars.
Secret Wars was a fairly revolutionary 12-issue series released in 1984 that existed as a limited series containing many of the most popular super heroes and super villains from the Marvel universe. This series at its conclusion has lasting impacts on the whole of the Marvel Universe. A new Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) is introduced, Colossus has an affair and breaks up with Shadowcat (Kitty Pride), She-Hulk takes Thing’s place on the Fantastic Four, a couple new villains are introduced, and most significant, Spider-Man gets the black suit.
The black suit is an alien symbiote which he brings back from Secret Wars after his original costume is destroyed in a battle. This suit eventually turns against him and bonds with Eddie Brock becoming Venom. One of the coolest and most popular of all Spider-Man villains. This has lasting impact in story lines even today as both Venom and various spawn/offspring pop-up in issues.
The story line is somewhat simple, not a lot of sub plot. However, I greatly respect the influence this 20+ year old series continues to have on modern Marvel comics.
A depressing thing I learned recently is that this series was created strictly to launch a super hero toy line for Mattel in case the He-Man toys suddenly tanked…
Tags: beyonder, colossus, comic, comics, crossover, doom, eddie brock, fantastic four, gallactus, he-man, heroes, human torch, kitty pride, marvel, mattel, secret wars, shadowcat, she-hulk, spider-man, spider-woman, spiderman, super-heroes, super-villians, symbiote, thing, venom