bishopcruz

Well, I think that the safe assumption is, even if they might be planning to, they won't age him in any meaningful way. Look at it this way, since 2000, when the Ultimate universe started a grand total of 1 1/2 years has passed. 6 months of which was after Ultimatum, which was supposed to have been a prelude to a 5 year jump. Peter Parker went from being a freshman, to halfway through his sophomore year. If they do decide that time can move quickly, and after a year or so we have a Miles as a senior getting ready for college, then color me pleasantly surprised. But no, every time they have talked about moving the UU forward, they have pussied out on it. That and considering Bendis wants to use this comic to talk about the whole charter school political situation, I figure he'll have at least a decade of pontificating. And while Stan Lee was WRITING Spider-Man he got Peter out of High School in less than 3 real life years. Peter was still a teenager going in to college, and no one was bitching. Hell I didn't even bitch TOO much at 15 year old Peter at first because that IS where Spider-Man began, him never advancing past high school however did grate on me after a decade. Let me put it this way, Dick Grayson, who aged slow as all hell, aged from 8 to 18 in roughly 30 years. Peter aged at about 1/3 that rate. Bendis has an issue moving Peter forward. I also want to address the 'iconic' idea of Peter in high school, and that's just not the case. As I said, Peter was barely in high school as a hero. He was in college for roughly 10 times longer. It was during that time that Spider Man, as everyone knows him was born. We met MJ, Gwen, Harry and a ton of the core cast. He had financial troubles, and he was still a teenaged for his first couple of years. And Miles is barely even a teenager. Miles is ridiculously young, especially for the Ultimate Universe. Peter's troubles were overblown for a High School kid, middle school is just absurd.

VA was pretty good, esp the Maria/James scene. James even sounds like it MIGHT be the same guy which it can't be due to disputes over royalties for SH2. 2's voice acting was by far the worst part of the game, even though it worked in spite of itself (it was damn alien and creepy, which fit the game's mood.) The big question is going to be whether or not the voices can fit the performances, remember SH2 did the Uncharted thing where the acted out the scenes on a stage for the mo-cap, then animated the faces by hand. Edit: Ok, listened to the original Jail scene again. Shit that was bad. James, had I never played SH 2 before is laughably bad. I think the game did so well on all other levels that the bad VA just washed away after a while Maria had the best actress, but even she is mediocre by most VA standards. Honestly if they were going for a big name director, get Andrea Romano, no one is better. Still here is the prison scene:

Playable Altair makes me happy, and the city looks AMAZING.

Spider-man's essence is honestly him in college. That is when the bulk of stories that made Spidey spidery REALLY went down. He was in High school for less than 3 years real time in the 616-verse, college took him like 20 years after that. His essence if you want ot call it that was a guy trying to make it on his own while juggling, school, work, and family obligations, oh and his life as a super hero. No one is calling for Ultimate Spidey to be married to MJ, with a great job, and on the Ultimates... I was hoping for something past high school however. At 13, there is a thematic disconnect. It's sidekick age in the greater comic book fiction and it is going to be a damn tough sell after the whole "Peter was too young" theme that was the basis of the last Spidey arc. Yes the point of a mask is to conceal an identity, but that only goes so far. I mean if he were to call himself Spider-girl I think people would note something was wrong. If Damian Wayne were to put on the cape and cowl, he would not, at age 10 be Batman. I mean if you take a 13-year old, put him in a spider man mask and put him up against someone who is a few years its senior, one looks like Spider man, one looks like a little kid in a costume. Miles isn't even a BIG 13 year old, he's tiny. And thus, Spider-lad.

I dunno older comics were often surprisingly good at hinting at shit without making it over the top absurd. I mean I've been reading the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans run and it has everything from implied rape to the devil fucking someone and it gets most of it across in a way that wasn't particularly over the top. Hell that run did shit that comics nowadays won't do and I don't recall parents going insane over it. It was considered a fine book for kids to read, but it worked for adults too. Then again, I think most comics are still fine for kids as is, and hell most stuff is still nowhere near as hardcore as a lot of shonen manga. As for the top 10, I agree with most of it, and DC seems to be following these things pretty well so far. So we'll see how it goes. As far as rolling everythign back? Nah, not everything. I figure the more unpopular changes will get thwomped quickly ala, Crisis on Infinite Earths' worst changes (Jonah Hex, IN THE FUTURE) but the bulk of it will be around for a while.

Seems to be ob the level. It was always Zcult.fm. Apparently the legal battle to shut it down turned out in their favor.

The old website. It just came up this week. Honestly I lost a lot of my DC++ links which makes me sad, but what'cha gonna do.

Yep. Though I guess now that you got it, the title goes to Jax.

And the missing the point award goes to...

Just so everyone knows, Zcult came back this week.

Johnny Storm? I thought it was supposed to be Liz Allen as Firestar? I do hope that Jean is still going by Karen Grant though, love the new design, and the character is no longer boring as hell.

I'm not discussing his race at all in these posts. Yes I think it was a gimmick, but it doesn't really bother me nearly as much as his age. As in, his race never made me think this character would suck, his age, yeah, kinda. They have jumped forward once, for 6 months right after Ultimatum. I have heard talk in interviews about time skips going forward a few years etc., etc., but it never happened. Peter aged 1 to 1 1/2 years during the whole decade of his run. Ultimates 3 was supposed to be 2 years after 2, that didn't happen. There was supposed to be a 5 yer jump after Ultimatum, but it became 6 months. I just don't see their storytelling style changing much. IOW, they certainly CAN jump forward in time, but based on a decade of stories, I doubt they ever will. Now you mentioned that they have done time skips in the past, maybe I missed one, which ones are you talking about? I don't think not being thrilled about the concept of a pubescent Spider-lad is nitpicking. BMB is good, maybe he'll surprise me, but I really doubt it. Looks like they saw "Waiting for Superman" and thought they could do something really cool by having a middle schooler or some shit. (Seriously, look at the preview pages for #1, those scenes are straight out of that movie.) Characters that by all rights shouldn't work have gone on to be my favorites in the past, and Bendis, when he is on, is amazing. Even so, 13 year old kid running of on his own to fight crime in a world as seriously dangerous as the UU, I'm just honestly not that interested.

Ultimate has never fast forwarded a few years, it's been a year and a half tops, Peter started at 15, died at 16. That took a decade. They always talked about jumping forward in time, but never did, and certain series suffered for it. That and I dunno I think 15 is my bare minimum for my suspension of disbelief on a mainline hero. Peter was pushing it as it was. At 13, I just don't see how he can even call himself Spider-man. He's a complete kid.

And to move away from OP/EDs and songs, Guts' theme.

Good choices though now that I look back over it, Nick's Berserk pick isn't from an Anime, it's only seen in the Dreamcast game. Anyhow nowhere near enough Kara no Kyoukai so:

Oh god that's right there are still friend codes aren't there. And dear god Revelations looks good. Seriously, how come Nintendo's first party games aren't even in the same ball park graphics wise? It's embarrassing.

Well for 1 month behind it looks like $1.99 is going to be the usual price from what I have read and what it looks like on comixology, their reseller for these books. I think that having them cheaper is smart too, don't get me wrong, but again, I think that until more than 5% of their business comes from digital sales, it's unlikely. Hell look at the clusterfuck that the agency model did to the ebook world. Still, day and date digital releases is at least a good first step. But again, DC needs to get off its ass about a Marvel like back issue bin service.

Uh, you do know that Marvel's digital service, while awesome, is also like 6 months behind right? No comic company is going to provide unlimited comics access online for brand new stuff at $9.99 a month. No way in hell. Could that model work? Maybe, I'm not sure how much Marvel pulls in on its site, or how much more they might if they had day and date digital releases, but Marvel does the same shit for their new stuff. I think the pricing models need to improve, and will over time, but yeah new stuff via subscription isn't happening. As far as costs, yeah, the comics should be cheaper online, but it comes down to the fact that DC (or any publisher) can't afford to piss off their retailers, and trust me, if they went day and date with these things at $1.99 the retailers would pretty much tell them to fuck themselves. Plus considering how bad DC's sales have been, they need retailers buying as much of their physical stuff as possible, and they are also hoping that enough new digital buyers will show up as well. And the sad truth in the digital era is that lack of a physical object does not equal a lower cost especially for new releases. Where it shines is allowing access to older works at often ridiculously low prices, see steam. At least they will be dropping prices on these after a month, so hopefully they will get smart and do a subscription service once they have enough back issues. This being DC, I'm not holding my breath.

Worst part of it, other than being a completely new character is that the kid is 13. That's not Spider-man territory, that's Spider-lad territory. And his mom is Puerto Rican, no way in hell she doesn't find out what he is doing, and when she does, no Spider sense in the world is going to help him dodge the chancleta flying at his head. But God, 13? That is just dumb. Ultimate Peter was too young as it is.

So how is everyone else liking the show? We have a fairly sizable little watch party every week which is entertaining. Ratings have been high, better than True Blood it's first season. Not as high as Boarwalk Empire though. After episode 6 this Sunday, HBO Go will show episode 7 immediately online. Curious to see how that will go. Episode 5 seemed to be where the series really kicked into high gear, knowing what is coming I cannot wait to see it all play out. How are Haku and the other series newbs holding up? Who are your favorite characters? What do you think is coming?

This show is hardcore.

Surprised that no one has actually answered this question yet. Honestly Game of Thrones feel a lot more like a medieval political history than a straight up fantasy. There are fantastical elements to be certain, but the show is much more about the interplay between the characters, the personal drama, and the overall badassery. A lot of people who don't like fantasy seem to have taken a shine to the adaptation. I found this in a write-up on the Boston Globe:

So, best current Adventure game developer hits a couple of kickass series... neat. Discuss.

On the bright side the first issue of the X-23 ongoing is out and it did not suck. Far from it in fact it was a damn good read, it had some great character moments from a bunch of X-men new and old and seems like a solid start to a new series. And with any luck the Wolvie in Hell shit will be ignored in this title.

If you like JRPGs and you haven't gotten Ys 7, shame on you! Ys: OiF is even better, and it has the best soundtrack in the series. And that is saying something. Xanadu next looks awesome, been out for years in Japan, but I think it could do alright here. Also for those who want to check out some Falcom in the cheap for PSP there is Gurumin, it's 9.95 on PSN and is alot of fun! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi7ABcInqFs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi7ABcInqFs?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi7ABcInqFs?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3P4Nr4h8c0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3P4Nr4h8c0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3P4Nr4h8c0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>