Official Iron Man 3 Prelude Comics!

If you are anything like me you are waiting with baited breath for the new Iron Man film to come out next week, and while we don’t have long to go now, Marvel have done us a solid in putting out some tie in comics to get us up to speed for the new movie.

I hit my local comic book shop Quality Comics last week to pick up the trade, headed out to the Daily Planet coffee shop and had a squiz.

The trade features a short comic catch up on Iron Man 2 and then shifts into the lead up to Iron Man 3. It includes the first issue of the Extremis series at the end. A solid book if you get the chance to grab a copy.

If you don’t have a chance to grab one and you’d like to know what the deal is before going to the Cinema this week, then please join me under the jump for Shawarma adventures featuring War Machine!

Thank GIF it's Friday!!

I can't even fathom the circumstances in which this GIF was created.

Book Review: Web of the City by Harlan Ellison

Before Harlan Ellison was an award-winning science fiction writer, he made some attempts at crime fiction. Titan Books has released the first novel he ever wrote, Web of the City, for its first printing in decades. As a historical document of the type of crime fiction that was popular in the 1950s United States, it is a great relic of a time long, long gone. As a work of fiction, it's definitely a pulpy piece of work that feels extremely dated and doesn't show much of any hints of what Ellison would become.

Review: Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS3)!

Let’s face it, super heroes are jerks. They are musclebound oafs who can’t solve the simplest problem without punching somebody in the throat. Long gone is the mythical, heroic age, today’s modern heroes are all about inflicting injuries followed by sarcastic quips. And grimacing like they’re shitting. Cyborg appears to be the worst offender here, pumping his fist in the air and bellowing, “Booyah!” after hurting someone. After knocking the crap out of Catwoman he let’s us know that he’s, “Still turned on”. Welcome to the progressive world of Injustice: Misogyny Among Us? That’s probably overstating, but Injustice’s biggest crime is that it’s dumb and unsophisticated.

The comics fan is a curious beast. The media leads us to believe that these are the kids that were constantly tortured and humiliated in high school, usually by muscle bound jocks who would then scream, “Booyah!”. So why idolize these monsters in fiction? Do you often think about the snappy quips that you would come up with after punching somebody in the face? Sure, violence is par for the course in fantasy good versus evil adventures, but how about some humility? Honour? Heroism?

Editorialising aside, this is a fighting game, fuelled by bone-crunching punches and kicks, so we’re going to embrace them! The dialogue/personalities/values on display might be questionable, but Injustice is still pretty damn good at what it does. So before I suck all the fun out of the room, let’s get our super-powered fight on... after the jump!

Superman's 75th Anniversary!!

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Man of Steel!!  To celebrate, lets look at the NEW 3rd official trailer for his movie, due out June 14th!

Looks great!  I can't wait!

Oh, incidentally, some folks are calling this Superman's birthday.  It's not.  His birthday is actually February 29th.  Why?  I don't know....that's the Earth equivalent date to the day he was born on Krypton, I guess!  Interestingly, Clark Kent has a DIFFERENT birthday...actually his "Earth Day" when Jon and Martha Kent found his ship...June 18th!  

There ya go...cool trailer and you learned something!  Happy 75th Anniversary Superman!!

PS: If you want MORE on The Man of Steel, you got it!  SUPERMAN.  A tribute to a hero...

Thursday Threesome: 3 Things To Know Before Launching A Kickstarter Campaign

Having just finished a month long Kickstarter campaign, I haven't come back to Earth as of yet. It's the strangest feeling in the world, as you've just spent a month refreshing and refreshing, answering questions, promoting like mad, refreshing some more and watching your total go up then down, then hopefully back up again. It's a torture that you would only wish on your worst enemies, yet we put ourselves through it over and over.

The notes below are based off of multiple campaigns that I've been a part of. Some were run by me directly, others I was part of a group, and some I was just there to assist. Some succeeded and others failed miserably. Most lost money. But with all that in mind, Kickstarter is a wonderful tool for creative people. It's a somewhat unpredictable tool, but there are a few things that you should know before using it.

Here are my three.

A Series You Must Read: Peter Brett's Demon Cycle

I love this piece of fanart, but I don't know what it's from. If anyone knows, I'd love to properly attribute it.

Sometimes a book series catches you by surprise, and by the time you're a few books in, you realize that it's become a favorite without your actually realizing it. The Demon Cycle by Peter Brett is quickly becoming that series, which The Daylight War (released in March) is the third book and is just as solid and high-quality as the two books preceding it.

Stryder's Favourite Comics - 4/10/2013

Not-WTF Month continues at DC Comics this week, wherein we get lots more double-covers with a "shocking reveal"!  Let's dive right in!

Batman #19 - "Yeah, well, sometimes being a hero gets old."

What madness is this?  We join Commissioner Gordon and Sgt. Bullock as they are attempting to negotiate in a stand-off with a bank robber who's taken hostages, some of whom are already dead!  Who is robbing a bank in broad daylight in Gotham City?  None other than Gotham's favourite son, Bruce Wayne?!? 

Wait, wait...that can't be right.  Can it?  Clearly there's a mystery afoot.

If that's not enough, there's also a cool back-up story wherein Batman and special guest Superman confront what, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a HAUNTED APARTMENT!  Ooooh, spooky...

Fun issue overall...of course it deals with the ongoing mourning period for poor Damian Wayne...but it is also fast-paced and high-action, with an intriguing story.  It's nice to read a Bat-title that's not entirely dark and heavy and grim...it's been a little while!

More from Gotham with Batgirl and Batman and Robin plus MORE after the JUMP!

F**k Yeah Game of Thrones Recaps! Episode Three: Walk of Punishment!

Holy crap, Game of Thrones! Swinging wildly between humour and sheer unadulterated horror, Episode Three, Walk of Punishment, seemed determined to both delight and disturb. And it’s not just the slaves of Astapor that will be grotesquely punished before the credits roll...

If you want the uneducated opinion of a white-knuckled, squeamish layman who hasn’t yet read the books, then I will recap the crap out of all this buttock-clenching blood-and-boobs madness... after the jump!

The Book Was Better Podcast Episode 40: Pokemon the First Movie Mewtwo Strikes Back (with guest hosts Tom and Xavier from Something Something Joystick!)

The Book Was Better is the podcast where we discuss, debate and mercilessly mock the (generally) hastily-written and terrible book-of-the-film!

In this super special 40th episode I have an intense comedy threeway with podcast pals Xavier and Tom from Something Something Joystick! Using our collective brainpower we managed to tackle the heady text that is the novelisation based on the movie, based on the TV show, based on the video game, Pokemon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. What the hell is a Pokemon anyway? Thanks to Xavier and Tom we are going to find out! Even if you can’t catch ‘em all, be sure to catch this one!

Explicit warning in full force on this one. Boys will be boys...

You can download it right now from the Book Was Better site, or why not be the very best and subscribe to us on iTunes!

Primeval UK Review Part 1 – Seasons 1 & 2

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Primeval New World, the Canadian spin off series of the UK’s Primeval. If you like you can read it here: http://www.fruitlesspursuits.com/2013/04/primeval-new-world-review-5-reasons.html People commented and told me to watch the original series, so here I am giving it a go and reviewing it along the way.

My disclaimer has to be that Primeval seems to be of its time. I am watching it in 2013 when digital technology is a lot better and we are spoiled with amazing and life like graphics that defy imagination. Primeval seems to be underfunded and therefore, the dinosaurs and creatures featured sometimes shatter the suspension of disbelief.

Before seeing Primeval New World many people warned me off Primeval saying that it was boring with poor CG and not worth the time. My opinions can be found under the jump. Before you go there, if you are still thinking about watching Primeval unspoiled or sullied, I will say this; get yourself a Bene. A Bene is a friend who loves Primeval already and will agree to watch it with you, at least for the first season, so that when you yell at the TV (there will be yelling) or you feel like you can’t go on (it has its moments), your Bene can gently assure you that it’s worth it and it will get better. Note: My friend happens to be named Bene, I am sure any friend of any other name with similar strength and qualifications will be suitable.

Enough rambling... let me tell you about Primeval seasons 1 and 2.

El Professore Movie Reviews: It Came From Hollywood

1982
Director: Malcolm Leo, Andrew Salt
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Cheech and Chong, Gilda Radner
* * *

I was lucky enough to have seen this rarity in theaters (twice!) way back in 1982 and have had nothing but fond memories of it since.

Full review after the break.

Doctor Who: The Cold War

Once again this week we are faced with Matt Smith’s Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman’s long anticipated Clara Oswald setting out on an adventure in the TARDIS. This time, the duo finds themselves on a submarine in the Cold War with angry men and a Martian angry lizard.

Summary? This episode was stronger than the last two but only barely. As predicted the episode was a brief window into the Doctor’s personality and history and indicated that the Matt Smith Doctor has less rage than Tennant’s Doctor. Written by Mark Gatiss, I had higher hopes for this episode and the human drama that it indicated would unfold.

Did it deliver? More discussion under the jump.

Review: Defiance! (PC)

You may not have heard a lot about Defiance, a third-person shooter/MMORPG that ties directly into a Syfy television series of the same name. Launching a week apart, both tell the story of the alien and human inhabitants of post-disaster, accidentally-terraformed San Francisco, learning to live together and fighting to survive against hordes of hostile hybrid creations. It’s a ballsy move for Rift developer, Trion, - if the TV show is a flop then it’s hard to imagine many new people being excited to join the game, and the world of Defiance is going to get very lonely very quickly without a vibrant and growing player base.

I’m yet to see the show myself, but the first half of April has been a video game wasteland so I picked up Defiance on PC to while away some time. Was it worth all the effort? Find out...after the jump!