GRIFT

Hickman's run on Fantastic Four is probably the best run any writer has had on a Marvel book in years. It is Simonson on Thor levels of good and tells some great Doom stories -- but it does an exceptional job at writing Reed who I think is one of the harder characters for writers to get right, let alone make likable.

I spent most of my Christmas break from work reading Hickman's other Marvel runs -- S.H.E.I.L.D. and Secret Warriors-- and beyond his meticulous plotting (he basically tells one story across all of his writing for Marvel) he has the all too important, and all too rare, ability to see what made these characters work in the first place and understands how to make those themes resonate 50 years later. There is a reason he was given Avengers after Fantastic Four and FF and why Marvel trusted a single writer to handle a line wide event like Infinity. Also, his run on Secret Warriors made me really sad that their aren't many Classic Fury stories being told.

Classic Fury > *All other Fury's.

It beats WWE 12 where he was essentially yellow.

I've enjoyed the game but the character models are a worse than they were in WWE 13. Some of the characters are pretty spot on while others are just weirdly bulky and oddly colored.

With his diabetes he probably wouldn't be about to drop the requisite weight but I think he'd make a great established Reed Richards.

Tom Hanks wants to be in a comic book movie but no one has asked him to. What role would you like to see him as?
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/movienewsandreviews/news/?a=88609#bl5jTWOB0EIoV5gP.01

I find it a little weird but Coulson reminds me more of Nick Fury from the comics than cinematic Fury does. I know Jackson is portraying the Ultimate version that is based on him, but he still just comes across as Sam Jackson as Sam Jackson to me. We never really see him do all that much. I get that Fury works in large part from the shadows but the great Steranko stories that made him famous and made him into the super spy of Marvel are way more instep with Coulson.

Coulson is the one who is a badass in the field, Coulson is the one who has romantic exploits with Peruvian lady warriors, and Coulson is the man gallivanting the globe with a flying car!

Random thought about S.H.I.E.L.D./The Avengers

While a lot of people are guessing that Jarvis will end up turning into Ultron I got to thinking about Coulson's resurrection and if he ends up being an LMD. It would be interesting to see him figure out that he is not really human and then turn on the Avengers in a way that would see the TV show set up the next Avengers film.

That said, I still think the Jarvis theory is solid and it is more likely that we will see him evolve into the cinematic universe's version of The Vision. Hopefully after S.H.I.E.L.D. gets legs under it enough to run without him as the lead.

Hmm -- No Usos is really the only big surprise to me. Those guys are challenging for the tag titles, have been around long enough, and seem like the type of fan favorites you'd want in a game so kids could get more attached to them.

I wonder if they'll be DLC like last year.

I just wrapped this game up after being too busy to play for the better part of the last two weeks and I just need to say that this game will forever hold a special place in my heart for a moment where I realized Roddy Piper was manning the turret gun on the alien space tank I was driving. What a mad fever dream of a game this was.

GERMAN SUPLEX

Batman doesn't remember it so much as he is aware of it due to The Flash telling him the story and giving him a letter from his father. I might be mistaken but I think they theorized that those memories may fade with time.

A timeline of the many creative departures and differences DC has had in the last few years.
http://guttersandpanels.com/gutters-and-panels/2013/3/23/the-new-52-timeline-of-departures

Piper was in the trailer. Normally they go out of their way to not show people who won't wind up in the game somehow.

Roddy Piper being in Saints Row IV and that game being the most fun thing on the planet is no coincidence. WWE needs to take notes.

I cannot stand 311 or Linkin Park and they both seem to be two ends of the same shit spectrum.

That is what happens when you ask Jim Lee to over see the updating of your characters.

I noticed if you tuned Nolan North's voice option to a pitch of 20 he sounds eerily like Jon Hamm and modeled my character to look just like Don Draper which has made the game even more enjoyable for me.

When reached for comment Tommy from Quinzee added, "FIRST OFF GO SAWX. SECOND, HE'S NAWT THE BATMAN WE DESERVE, HE'S THAT QWEAH FROM GIGLI."

He then added, "LASTLY, GO SAWX. WHAT? YOU THINK YA BETTAH THAN ME?!"

So I am finally going back and rereading all of Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four. I had jumped on when he took over the book around #570 and followed it weekly before falling out of loop sometime shortly after 600 and going back now and reading it as a whole -- especially without the media hooplah and internet outrage over the 3 storyline influencing me as I read it-- has been a great experience.

His plotting is incredibly meticulous and gives the storytelling a grand backdrop that is in step with the Fantastic Four's best stories -- but that backdrop is ultimately there to explore simple themes of family, friendship, and the powerful ways that those bonds can manifest.

(This is a plotting graphic he, apparently, used to pitch his original 30 issue story)

Anyways, I just read #605 and...

I got kinda choked up! The story shows Reed and his father travelling forward in time to see how their efforts in the great climactic battle had impacted the future. Reed gets the unique opportunity to see the exact measure of his legacy, seeing how the Fantastic Four evolves over the years and witnessing the Baxter Buildings that stand in the center of a futuristic New York and act as a sort of superhero college and house of big ideas. Eventually though he comes to realize that Ben Grimm will outlive everyone by thousands of years due to only aging in his human form. The story takes something of a sad twist as they jump forward thousand of years at a time to check in on Ben right up until he finally finds rest in death.

Armed with this knowledge Reed returns to the present and for what feels like the first time in the run steps out of his lab and sits down with Ben, his old college roommate, for a beer and a boxing match -- realizing how fleeting his time with him is, especially compared to the time Ben will be around for. It was really pretty damn touching!

The Asgardian Lion definitely needs more screen time.

If I listen to Primus when I sleep I always dream in claymation.

http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/08/the-10-biggest-oh-sht-moments-in-the-history-of-breaking-bad/

I thought this list was pretty spot on -- beware of the spoilers.

If we are going to have a middle aged Batman and leave most of the stunts to a body double, can't we just get Jon Hamm a gym membership? He has the intensity to be Batman without growling and is real life Bruce Wayne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nz5IG96ebA

Don't you know baby i'm a leading man
I dig down deep when i say i love you
And i can hold my own with the best of them
I guarantee you, you will never see nothing like this again
California, i hope that it wakes you
From all of the darkness
That i couldn't break through
'cause i'm gonna miss you, i'm gonna miss you
I'm gonna miss you, i'm gonna miss you
Don't you know that i did the things i could
I rubbed your back when you were sleeping
But all along baby it was understood
That you were leaving, absolutely
Since the very first day we met
California, i hope that it wakes you
From all of the darkness
That i couldn't break through
'cause i'm gonna miss you, i'm gonna miss you
I'm gonna miss you, i'm gonna miss you
Like i miss the ocean
When i go to sleep
Man, it's gonna break my heart

Those two verses strike a chord. That idea of being with someone you know it won't work out with but for no reason other than they don't think it will work out. There is a pain of defeat to it, but one that doesn't hurt because it was always there. I love how snarky but sincere the first verse is too -- you can tell that the singer is upset that he is being relegated to the supporting cast so to say.

True Story: Dennis Farina once gave me the finger.

When I was in high school HBO took over my hometown to shoot an adaptation of Empire Falls by Richard Russo and Dennis played the owner of the local gym. It was a pretty surreal couple of months where Paul Newman, a very cranky pregnant Helen Hunt, and Bill Fitchner were all wandering the halls of my highschool or the down town area. The school became Empire Falls High School, Somerset Sports and Fitness became Empire Fitness, etc... Hell, Ed Harris got an OUI leaving our hometown bar -- Bloomfields.

Anyways, one day I my friend Garrett and I were driving from soccer practice to the gym so we could do our follow up workout and there is an intersection where another road merges with where we were driving and a town car blew through the yield sign and almost hit us. I pointed to the yield sign, and said "THAT SAYS YIELD", and the grey haired gentleman driving the town car gave me the finger, pointed to it, and said, "THAT SAYS FUCK YOU," and then drove off the road to pass us.

Garrett and I started laughing at the whole thing and realized, holy shit Uncle Avi just gave us the finger.