The Ultimates

The Ultimates.







If there is one things about me that people that know me should know is that The Ultimates are what got me into comics. The X-men had come out and being a sheep i was worshipping at the alter of Wolverine. One day my lovely wife suggested we stop at local comic book shop to shut me up. I sent about 25 minutes looking, then i just asked the guy whats good. He looked at me and handed me the tpd to the The Ultimates. I paid left, read, came back and asked for more. But that topic is for another time.

I never followed The Avengers. I knew Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were the 3 big guns. Most of my exposure to the group was in the video game Captain America and the Avengers. But this was something else. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch gave us a comic series that was for my generation. Allow me to give you a brief recap.


Issue one. Picture Saving Private Ryan with Captain America. Done. Oh we meet Tony Stark also.
Issue two. Starts with the reintroduction of Ultimate Nick Fury (Sam Jackson) from his earlier showing in Ultimate X-men. We also meet Hank and Janet Pym. At the end of the issue Cap is found.
Issue 3. Cap. awakens and thinks Zee Germans have taken him.Busts out and is captured by Giant man. In this issue Fury makes a joke that his nose has been trashed more time than Robert Downey Jr. Something looking back on is really funny considering how great Iron Man is.
Issue 4 Interpersonal stuff between the group. Larry King and Shannon Elizabeth make cameos. Hawkeye is hinted at but not seen. We also get our first look at Thor here with no connection to Donald Blake, but instead a new wave prophet. With a really big hammer. After getting belittled Bruce Banner decides that he wants to be big again.
Issue 5 Is the throw down issue. Fighting and more fighring.

Issue 6 Is Giant man vs The wasp.

Now I know i should go into more details but trust me just get the book.

A couples of points
*Millar and Hitch approached was to though nothing has happened before and tell the story fresh from the start going back to the core of who these people were and build outwards Cap is the soldier thor is a nut case or a messiah banner hulk is an insecure genius and fury the king of cool, from a quote in FEB 2002
*Although most people believe that The Avengers are called that because they avenge things. Hank Pym coined the name. Because it sounded dramatic.*Issue 4 States that movie on the ultimates is being made. Brad Pitt as Captain America, Lucy Liu as The Wasp, Matthew McConaughey as Giant man, Sam Jackson, Johnny Deep as Tony Stark, and an unnamed actor as Bruce Banner.
And there came a day a day unlike any other when Earth's mightest heroes and heroines found themselves united a againest a common threat On that day the avengers were born to fight the foes no single super hero could with stand Through the years their roster has proposed changeing many times but their glory has never been denied Heed the call then for The Avengers assemble or listen



A couple of things
One Boss sorry it took so long to post this.
Two I consider The Ultimates to be The Avengers
Thank you for Reading my mess and also stay tuned i have a couple of ideas for the next one.

Rev Terry Jones and his Nazism

Alright, I know this is not nerd related in anyway but I have to get this off of my chest. Normally I would not subscribe or even waste my time talking about these idiots or should I say Zealots, but this guy has gotten right under my skin and got me thinking about a lot of things.

Now I am sure some of you know that in the recent news that a pastor from Florida USA Rev Terry Jones is going to burn copies of the Quran on September 11th in memory of the atrocities of what happened that day back in 2002. Now the shear ignorance of single mindedness of this man has left many people foaming at the mouth. He has received over a hundred death threats and caused hundreds to protest in Afghanistan, resulting in the American flag being burned and chants that say "Death to America".

Ok so lets analyze this situation in a little more detail and see if we can break it down to what it seems like or could be.  For one I am sure there is a lot of people out there that is agreeing with him, and a lot are actually helping him by sending him copies of the said holy book. Fine they are just as bad as he is for being drawn into his mindless ramblings and evangelical nonsense. This is typical of what damage and hate mongering religion can do to people.

But lets look at a different picture here, this pastor lives in a small town and his congregation reaches 50 people (or so it is said). So how would he attract more people? well him doing something controversial and upsetting of course, and the sad thing is, it is working. The media are chewing at the bit for any bit of information regarding this publicity stunt. Even the pope and top leaders of the US Army are falling for this mans idiocy. But of course, this piece of Nazism  would not have gone unnoticed if he actually goes through with it, even if it was not intended to cause a media storm or a publicity stunt, to which I am certain that Rev Terry Jones is fully aware of and intended all along. The interesting thing about this and why I know it is a publicity stunt is because he said this and I quote "If God tells me to stop I will" and also he is trying to pull Imam Muhammad Musri (the Muslim leader who is trying to build a "mosque" near ground zero in New York) into the mix. He said he would not burn the Qurans only if they do not build the mosque and that him and Imam are in agreement. Of course Imam is denying any such agreement and I fully doubt that they have even communicated. So the main question is, will he go through with it?. I am expecting him to pull out at the last minute.

Now lets look at another picture. Say that rev Terry Jones DOES go through with this stunt and burns the books, what will happen next?. Well this will be one hell of a propaganda boost for the Terrorist groups out there trying to recruit. "Oh look at what the evil Americans are doing, they hate you and they hate what you stand for". As we all know Muslims take their religion seriously, as do many other religious people. They have their views and are entitled to what they want to believe, and so are Christians, catholics, Buddhists etc. I am an Atheist and I believe that religion is the root of all evil, and in order for the human race to survive and be happy, we must release ourselves from such nonsense, But that is my opinion and I hope whoever reads this believes I am entitled to it. But I am getting sidetracked here. The Quran burning would put many people in danger, our soldiers and civilians. This is exactly what the terrorists are hoping for, this boost in their view of moral obligation. Also it is putting rev Terry Jones's life in danger also, but say if something bad was to happen, I am sure he would be made a martyr in some peoples eyes. Just like the suicide bombers. In fact I believe they are one and the same.

Another thing I have thought about and the most out there and very conspiracy theorist, and I do not want you to think that I believe this thought because I really don't, it is just an idea. I have thought about that maybe he was put up to this? maybe someone gave him a nice check for him to perform the most insulting thing he can to the Muslim people just to cause a major uproar and make something go down hill from there. I mean it is not really hard to believe that some backwoods preacher would not do something like this? so it is a perfect scapegoat. You can look at this in different ways, each way is as crazy as the next. Maybe actual terrorists approached him and gave him cash in order to drive people into a frenzy. Maybe our own government did this to justify something in the future to get the proverbial snowball rolling. They knew that the Muslim community would not stand for it and hopefully would cause violence and unrest. Maybe further down the line another war?. Again I do not really think the above is the case and I certainly hope it is not.

how improbable you all are, and how lucky we are to be even on this planet, lucky to be just alive. It is a shame to think that it is in our nature to destroy ourselves when we have so much potential and we let a stone age belief in a god to rule our lives.

Is PC Gaming dead?

Hi my nerdizzles, sorry about not posting for a while. Life changes etc and being lazy is no excuse for not posting so I am truly sorry.

Anyway, I would like to discuss the current state of PC gaming. For one I love the PC, it has brought me much entertainment and has such versatility that can not be matched. It spawned the internet fandom, is the forefront of gaming technology. You can just do just about anything with it. In the early 2000's is was the most popular gaming platform and in front of any other console on the market in terms of games and technology, so why are people saying it is dying?

Well, I have been involved with computers for a very long time and this sort of thing happens all the time. You had the Amiga and it was one of the best gaming platforms around, then it died to the consoles and eventually to the PC. So is it time for the PC to just give up on its old motherboard and die? certainly not. There is still more PC's out there than consoles either for personal or business, it all depends on how you look at it.

The PC has some of the best developers out there, look at Valve and its Steam platform. It is proving that there is still a market for PC Games and that piracy is not an issue when you can create a quality game that people will buy, also with Valves Steamworks for the PS3 and allowing PC and PS3 players cross platform will be amazing and improve sales on PC and PS3 titles across the board. Valve has some A+ titles coming out that is going to blow the socks off of everyone. We have Portal 2, Half Life Episode 3 and probably some others we dont know about.

Then we come to Blizzard, oh Blizzard how I love thee. They have proven you can still make a bucket full of cash just on the PC alone. I am not just talking about the obvious World Of Warcraft either. Starcraft 2 was the second fastest selling PC game ever (behind its own WoW expansion Wrath of the Lichking) and it continues to sell by the truck load everyday. When cataclysm comes out it will sell and more than likely beat Wotlk in sales.

Yes that is only two developers you might say, but they are but a few out there that is keeping PC gaming alive and with these developers the PC will never die to just being a Business machine it once was. With your consoles, you will have to buy a new model just to keep up. With a PC buy a new graphics card and you are good, or just turn the graphics down a little and it will still run on a machine that is 5 years old. A good graphics card could run you $70, where as a new console will run you $499 on release and even then if you are lucky to get one opening night and wait in a long queue all night for it to release.You will have to buy games that are $60+, PC games with equal or better graphics will be $50+ so $10 cheaper.

So for me, with piracy aside, I feel the PC still has long life and something will come along that will breath new life into it.

Where your dreams meet reality.

Paprika
(Where your dreams meet reality)

In the near future, a revolutionary new psychotherapy treatment called dream therapy has been invented. A device called the "DC Mini" allows the user to view people's dreams, exploring their unconscious thoughts. The head of the team working on this treatment, Doctor Atsuko Chiba, begins using the machine illegally to help psychiatric patients outside the research facility, using her alter-ego "Paprika", a persona she assumes in the dream world. The movie opens with Paprika counseling Detective Konakawa Toshimi, who is plagued by a recurring dream, the incompleteness of which is a great source of personal anxiety for him. This type of counseling session is not officially sanctioned, so Doctor Atsuko Chiba and her associates must be cautious that word does not leak out to the press regarding the nature of the DC Mini and the existence of Paprika. Her closest ally is Doctor Kōsaku Tokita, an obsessively obese child-at-heart genius and the inventor of the DC Mini. Unfortunately, before the government can pass a law authorizing the use of the device, three of the prototypes are stolen. Because of their unfinished nature, the DC Minis can allow anyone to enter another person's dreams, giving the culprit an opportunity to get away with all sorts of malicious deeds. Almost immediately, the chief of the department, Doctor Toratarō Shima, goes on a nonsensical tirade and jumps through a window, nearly killing himself.

Upon examining Shima's dream (which consists of a lively parade of inanimate objects, instrument-playing animals, and various cultural icons), Tokita recognizes his assistant, Kei Himuro, which seems to confirm their suspicion that the theft was an inside job. After two other scientists fall victim to the DC Mini, the Chairman of the company, who was against the project to begin with, bans the use of the device completely. This fails to hinder the crazed parade, which manages to claim Tokita and intrude into Konakawa's dream. Paprika and Shima take matters into their own hands, and find that Himuro is only an empty shell. Tracing the "roots" that controlled him, Paprika confronts the Chairman, who claims that he is in fact the "protector of the dream world", guarding this last haven against the inhumane horrors of reality and technology. He is aided by researcher Doctor Morio Osanai, who agreed to give the Chairman his body and become the Chairman's lackey as long as he retains equal powers over his own dreams. Paprika is eventually captured by the pair after an exhausting chase. Paprika wakes as a butterfly pinned to a table in a room surrounded by pinned butterflies. There, Osanai admits his love for Chiba, and literally peels away Paprika's skin to reveal Chiba underneath. However, he is interrupted by the outraged Chairman who demands that they finish off Chiba; as the two share Osanai's body, they battle for control as they argue over Chiba's fate. Konakawa enters the dream from his own recurring dream, and flees with Chiba back into his. Osanai gives chase through Konakawa's recurring dream, causing Konakawa to realize that his recurring nightmare and anxiety result from his guilt that he never finished the film he was making with a friend. He decides to "finish the film" and take control of the dream by shooting Osanai. The act actually kills Osanai's physical body with a real bullet wound.

Dreams and reality have now merged. The dream parade is running amok in the city, and reality itself is starting to unravel. Shima is nearly killed by a giant Japanese doll, but is saved by Paprika, who has become an entity separate from Chiba thanks to dreams and reality merging. Amidst the chaos, Tokita, in the form of a giant robot, eats Chiba and prepares to do the same for Paprika. The Chairman also returns in the form of a living nightmare, reveals his twisted dreams of omnipotence, and threatens to darken the world with his delusions. A ghostly apparition of Chiba appears and reveals that she has in fact been in love with Tokita this whole time and has simply been repressing these emotions. She comes to terms with her own repressed desires, reconciles herself with that part of her that is Paprika. Paprika returns to Tokita, throwing herself into his body. A baby emerges from the robotic shell and sucks in the wind, aging as she sucks up the Chairman himself, becoming a fully-grown combination of Chiba and Paprika. In this new form, she is able to consume the Chairman's dream form and end the nightmare he created. In the final scene, Chiba sits at Tokita's bedside. Konakawa and Shima leave the two as Chiba puts her hand in Tokita's. As Konakawa and Shima walk down the street, Shima asks if Konakawa ever figured out the meaning to all this. Konakawa, turning to his reflection and seeing the figure of his film friend, realizes that he in fact became the character from their original film: the cop. Konakawa visits Paprika's website and receives a message from Paprika: "Atsuko will change her surname to Tokita... and I suggest watching the movie Dreaming Kids." The film ends as Konakawa purchases a ticket for the movie.

Wow. Simply wow. Satoshi Kon has struck again and captivated my heart with this film. This is another film he can add to his mind f**ck resume. I’d say this movie is right on par with the Ghost in The Shell Franchise due to it’s complexity of technology while, Paprika did not have a lot of cyberpunk in the movie, the two could quite possibly be siblings from different fathers. It only took me one run-through to figure out what was going throughout the entire film. The parade procession can be quite confusing but, I understood it be a Japanese folklore/tradition. I also love when anime film makers include part of their heritage in their films; it shows a little bit of their world and puts a little piece of them in the movie.

Satoshi Kon is talented in all ways of capturing the hearts of the otaku community and quite possibly psychologists. He really hit it on the nail with his psycho-thriller, Perfect Blue. It was a completely ordinary situation and he messes with your brain. He really puts you in the characters shoes. He wants you to feel the same emotions and experiences the characters are going through. This movie might take a few watches for you to get what’s going on but, that’s quite alright because it’s one of those films you can watch over and over, always finding something new.

Overall, I give Paprika a 9/10 and a gold star for creativity, actually requiring us to think with our pea-sized brains.

Definitely worth a watch if you are into Ghost in The Shell.

EDIT: 8/25/10 - I just found out that 2 weeks after I wrote this, Satoshi Kon passed away last Tuesday. It passed away at the age of 47 in his battle with cancer. I offer this post/review/whatever you would like to call it as tribute to this amazing director and animator. Dedicated to him, family, friends and fans.

His ideas and visions will remain encased in his colorful films.

Deadpool Cast

Well Hello again,
Having talked to the All Mighty (the wife) and the Brother (my brother, better nickname coming soon), I decided to go with the Deadpool casting...so remember budget is not a concern of mine (not my money). Please enjoy and someone answer where the hell is Bob?
Deadpool = Ryan Reyonlds. Any questions?? Good moving on...
Cable = Micheal Biehn. I've always been a fan of the guy. I recently watched the first Terminator and just liked watching the guy say some of things he says and the looks he gives cops. (The Brother said Stephen Lang so we could go with that too, but my first choice is the guy that keeps a shotgun for close encounters).
Bob = Anton Yelchin. This character is a long way off but it would be a nice little role.
Weasel = Justin BarthaI. I liked the guy in the first National Treasure and i felt he was under used in The Hangover, but that was the point. Having him play off of Ryan would be a sight.
Domino = Nia Peeples. If there was one good thing about Half Past Dead it was Nia. She is the only reason why you should watch that movie.
Blind Al = Jane Fonda. A short cameo is all. No real need for the character, just to have her yelling at Deadpool.
Bea Authur = CGI a la Marlon Brando in Superman Returns, or just have the Golden Girls on the tv in the background.
Outlaw = Dina Meyer.
Siryn = Lesile Bibb. She was the reporter in Iron Man. This would allow her to interact more with the action by putting her in direct conflict with Deadpool's mission: to find Killbrew, who is guarded by her uncle.
Agent X = Bradley Cooper. Bradley would be my fall back pick for Deadpool, so let him be someone who is also looking for Killbrew but always one step behind.
　
　
Oh the villians you ask...
Bullseye = Colin Farrell. Saw lots of bad things in Daredevil, but the casting of the bad guys was awesome. Colin was indeed magic.
Black Tom cassidy = Gerard Bulter or Kevin Mcckid; flip a coin. Gerard has a hero look but really needs to go all out as a comic villian. Of course Kevin is an unkown to most, but he is well known in the geek world.
Juggernaut = Nathan Jones. With a real uniform, not that S&M outfit from XMen 3.
Typhoid = Ashley Scott. She needs to be able to look like she loves Deadpool but hates him too, although he is the only man that can touch her.
Dr. Killbrew = Donald Sutherland. I love Sutherland. I love his apatheic attitude as a teacher in Animal House, but he also has the look of the kindly old man who could be running an illegal genetics lab.
T-ray = Edge. With T-Ray you have someone that is without regard for anything but his own. He is his most important object. I like the look Edge has been using on WWE lately.

Coming next a review of The Ultimates

Well Hello So where were we? Oh yeah. Next summer...THOR. Got new new pictures of Odin, Loki, and Thor this week. I love the look of the armor. Just right I say. Loki may not have his green spandex but with the armor. Odin when I thought that Sir. Lecter himself was going to be in this movie i thought...well i thought it works. I wasnt expecting the eye patch but it fits. Now to Thor. I am not the biggest Thor fan on the planet. My real exposure up to The Ultimates was in Adventures in Babysiting and in the Hulk tv movies. After The Ultimates I didn't read the main marvel universe until JMS came on. The first 12 issues in that series are really good. Not great, but really good. But back to the Ultimates. i love how Millar and Hitch went with the character. Taking a real-world thought to what would happen if someone showed up and said" I am Thor, son of Odin, God of Gaint Hammers and Kicking your ass." Some believe most don't. But with that hammer no one really wants to pick a fight. Oh the hammer. If the one thing I'm not happy about but ok with is the hammer. I prefer the Ultimates hammer, I understand that the other one is better known to everyone. Just one more step to The Avengers. Comic-con is in one week i will have my computer on search the entire weekend for the trailers from Thor and

Green Lantern
How can the studio that made the dark knight be in trouble with DC comics fans ? Although Warner Bros owns Dc comics, Since the dark knight, Watchman, Losers, and Jonah Hex have not had the impact that the studio wanted. Watchmen which did the best it could was kind of boring it became a punch line because of the blue penis jokes. I thought the movie had its moments but they are few. The Losers. I will be honest i loved the movie. I thought Chris "Cpt.american" Evans really was the star of movie. The jokes were there but the plot was standard. Some twists were large "hey this is going to happen" signs. Now as for Jonah Hex when im told to get a root canal instead of seeing the movie, Dammit i see the movie. But thats later. Green Lantern is the movie that will be setting the Dc movie universe. As many know I like Ryan Reyonlds mostly for his love of a certain Merc with a Mouth that he is trying to get to the big screen also seems like a generally funny guy by the roles he chooses( Chaos Theory). But again later on that. The Suit looks different, something we havent seen before. Again we need to see it in action. If this movie works and it will we get The Flash (I thought ryan would make a great Flash but maybe Bradley Cooper ), Maybe Wonder Woman (Kate Beckinsale Please) and somewhere down the line a Justice League movie. There is a lot riding on the green power ring. Anyway thats it for now. So next time we talk will be about either The Ultimates or a dream cast for a deadpool movie.

Anime School: Where an otaku can be an otaku!

Anime School
(Where an otaku can be an otaku)




I know many of you love anime but have you ever thought about working in the anime industry? Many people get into the industry though their work and then there are some who get in after attending an anime college.

One of the schools is Nihon Kogakuin College. From looking at their site, you can see that they offer courses that teach you the full production cycle of anime production from planning, plotting, drafting, post recording and editing.

Many of whom work in the anime industry scout for talent at such animation colleges. These schools are a great way to get hands on experience and create something to help further ones career.

Many folks go on about how salaries are dead cheap in the anime industry - it may be true for some but in many cases salaries are cheap for folks who just left college who want a chance to work on something big. And if they are still on a low salary after working for many years - well that's no different from any other job where salary is usually performance based.Experienced illustrators in the anime industry are paid quite a bit for their achievements on past projects and would have likely started off being paid with peanuts and raisins.

Far too many on an occasion have I seen folks who don't have past achievements demanding high salaries. Think long term instead of short term - peanuts for now to help you get by and then golden nuggets after you have been through hell - you deserve it. If you believe in yourself then don't focus on the money right now because you know you will make it in the end.

There are a load of colleges in Japan where you can where you can take courses that cover game, anime and manga creation. The following sites have info in English so I'm guessing that they have facilities to cater for non Japanese speaking folks.

And how about the lessons? At the Tokyo Animation College site lists the curriculum for three years where you will learn things like Anime Production, Sketching, Digital Work, Background Basics, Short Movie Production and so on.

So how about fees? Well the cost of the courses are not listed on many of the sites . A "Manga and Animation" course at the Nihon Kogakuin costs 2,555,170 yen for two years. Quite a bit of change. How much has education been costing you so far in your neck of the woods? Do you pay for everything or does your government help pay most of it?

So, how many of you want to work in the anime production industry?

(Ahhaaa. First post for July!)