Happy B-day to me

I have no idea what I'll get in presents but it really doesn't matter. I'm content with what I have and the life I've been given. I'm thankful to the Lord every day for each year He's blessed me with.

I don't know where you are, but treat yourself to some cake and hum me a little diddy if you're bored!

Venom/Carnage

Back in the day these were two of the hottest characters in Marvel comics. I have the first appearance of Carnage even and LOVE that story! After a while Marvel killed everyone's love for these characters by over-exposure. They were in EVERY comic book back in the day!

So flash forward 10 years later you'd think they'd get it right....right?

Wrong. To drag on the symbiot fatigue, they decided to spawn yet ANOTHER character "Toxin" in this mini-series.

Toxin is a terrible character. Completely uninteresting and obviously made to sell more comics. Since this is the first I've ever heard of him and this comic is over 10 years old I'm guessing the comic community didn't take to it either.

I'm on a roll for terrible comics it seems.

Captain Universe (Review)

Another short mini-series I read from my Marvel comic collection. I have no idea why they decided to do it this way, but every issue featured a different super hero from the Marvel Universe until the "Power" finally got into "Captain Universe" and a new "hero" was born.

To be honest, even with all the star power they put into these comics, the main character's not that interesting at all and looks kind of cheesy. This is another "re-booted" character from the old Marvel universe that made a comeback back in the day when the company was throwing every idea up against the wall to see what would stick.

For me, this one fell flat.

Happy Memorial Day

In memory of all those who died for our nation. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Squadron Supreme (Review)

This is a re-boot of an old series from Marvel from back in the day. The writer tries really hard to make you love these characters, giving each team member there own "introductory" page and making their super powers seems unique but in reality, they're all pretty generic.

As for their story?  A team of heroes brought together by the US Government to stop violence around the world and....and.....you have more trouble staying awake than understanding the point of the comic.

How many bad ideas did Marvel cough up 10 years ago in the first place?! All of these comics aren't that old, you'd think lame stories such as these would've been shot down back then But apparently not!

Have a great weekend folks!

Black Friday

High Priority

 Mid-Priority

Low Priority

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Arena (Review)

After suffering through Amazing Fantasy, I was unhappy to see this guy have issues of Arana's own comic series.

The only good thing I can say about this series is he only collected 6 issues. It's amazing that the more I read about her the less interested I became. This character is neither funny or interesting, but they did their best to make you think she was cool. In fact, in her first meet up with Spiderman, the webbed wonder automatically accepts her as a legit hero and even thinks she's cool....yeah... whatever Parker!

Avoid this series at all cost. 

Amazing Fantasy (Review)

The next mini-series I read was this reboot of the classic Marvel title but with new characters.

It sucked.

Basically focusing on 2 girl characters who are so boring you'll give up on them before finishing the first issue.

Funny thing about the comic (and something I was actually starting to enjoy) was they kept showing action poses as this girl featured in the pic above (Arana) in a costume she doesn't get until the 6th issue! Before that it's just her in street clothes trying to figure out her powers.

But Marvel couldn't have that! Imagine how many people would buy up a comic with the cover of a punk girl doing NOTHING over 5 issues!? I kind of felt it was a gag from the artist that we were never going to see the costumer (or any action for that matter) and they were just teasing the fans.

Heck, before her story arc ended (in issue #6) I was cheering for her to NEVER put on the costume for the entire run! (which would've been hilarious)

Sadly that was the only funny thing about this boring comic.

Strange (review)

Yeah! Time for more comic reviews! This week I'll start of with this mini-series, re-telling the origin of Dr Strange. I'm assuming this is what the movie was based off of because there's a lot of similarities between the too.....meaning this series was boring as well.

I never really liked Dr Strange as a character and was hoping this book would change my mind but it really didn't. Guess this hero just isn't for me!

Undrafted (review)

I'm a sucker for a baseball movie. Whenever I see one on one of the movie channels I haven't seen before I go ahead and record it and hope for the best. With this, I didn't get the best but what I got was good enough.

The movie is based on a true story where on the day of the MLB draft, a player finds out he didn't get drafted and decides to play out the very last game of his intramural season like it's his last.

What's most unique about this movie is that it takes place on the ball field the entire time. Only cutting away to flashbacks near the very end. I was impressed since a lot of baseball movies focus on what's going on off the field.

The characters are pretty well defined with the exception of a few going faceless. But you really get to know 8 of the 12 players on the team pretty well by the end of the movie so that's pretty good. There are moments of brilliance that pop up every once in a while. One of my favorites is a discussion in the dugout as the bench warmers on the team  come up with some great off the field banter that you remember having yourself while in the dugout.

Then there are other moments that you wish could have been better. For example, the movie shows one kid striking out and then at the top of the next inning, standing in the outfield cussing into his glove like you saw happen ALL THE TIME when you played the game. (heck, it could've been you doing the swearing) but then he continues his tirade in the outfield that looks ridiculous and unreal that a guy in his 20's would act that immature.

After the movie they play the actual game ending hit as shown at the end of the movie, to show you how it happened in real life. I nice touch.

Though not my favorite baseball movie by far, Undrafted was indeed worthy of my time. If you love baseball movies, I think you'll find it "ok" in your book too. 

BGG Spring Con Play list (Update)

A short rundown again of the games already on my list:

1) Montana

2) Walnut Grove

3) Kingsburg

4) Manila

5) Pillars of the Earth

6) Corporate America

7) Mexica

Off the list:

1) War of the Ring- After watching yet ANOTHER review on the game it just looks too awful to waste my time on. I LOVE Lord of the Rings but MAN does that gameplay look TERRIBLE!

2) Fool's Gold - I think I found a better "gold digging" game I'll enjoy. 

And now the "new" additions to my list!

Andromeda

This is an interesting game where you have area control mixed with "dice coupling" which I like. The "bits" look interesting as well, so I'm going to check it out. 

Citrus

I meant to add to the list but forgot about it over time. It's tile placement mixed with area control and looks good enough to give it a shot!

A Column of Fire

Since I'm playing "Pillars of the Earth" I may as well try the other games in the series as well. This looks slightly complicated but I do like the theme so I'll give it a shot.

World Without End

The "final" game in the Trilogy. Looks a little better than Column of Fire (in game play) and since I've removed War of the Ring from my play list, I have plenty of time to try other games. (I hear War of the Ring is a long game)

Santiago De Cuba

This is an interesting game I just discovered last week! A little dice rolling mixed with worker placement was enough to grab my interest.

Luxor

The game looks interesting, plus it's Queen Games which I usually tend to love so I'll give it a shot. The only bad thing about the game is that it's the "Hotness" right now so I may not get a chance to play it at all but we'll see. 

Rallyman

I've been on and off about checking this game out for a while. Guess if the opportunity strikes, I'll go ahead and check it out see what all the hype is about!

Arkadia

To quote Jack Skeleton "What's this?" A tetris style, tile placement game?! With the pop up pieces included in the game, it stands out enough to gain my attention for a test play at the con.

Rajas of the Ganges

Taking a friend's advice and playing this one at the con. Looks interesting enough. Almost picked it up before my trip but decided to hold off a day or two and play it. Game looks beautiful!

Master Builder 

It doesn't look like much but it's enough to take my interest. It's pretty cheap online too so if I end up loving it I'll add it to my collection.

Finca

Collecting fruit and selling it to the local townships....that's it. And I'm intrigued! It carries a Rondel system which perks my curiosity in playing it even more!

5 Months and still going

At the Century Link office down the road from my home they've had this Christmas Tree up in their window every since last year. I'm hoping it stays for the whole year and so far so good!

I'll give another update in 3 or 4 months if it's still up!

The New Invaders (Review)

This mini-series is about an alternate story line where....the whole story sucks. I'll be honest I was confused the whole time and the only thing I cared about was getting to the final issue of the series so it would end.

I don't know who thought about this story but they should've worked harder on making it interesting. I'm tempted to go ahead and trash these comics for the good of humanity.

Terrible series.

Have a good weekend folks!

Drax (review)

The comic box I'm going through at the moment seems to be a lot of miscellaneous mini-series. Some complete, some incomplete. I'm trying to read all of the ones that are mostly complete. Drax is one that was.

This comic was before he was a Guardian of the Galaxy and before many comic book fans period knew about him. The series is a bit of a bore however.

Issue 1 premise; Drax is an alien. Issue 2, Drax dies. Issue 3 he comes back to life and issue 4 he kills those who killed him.

Not much more than that. Easily forgettable and pointless. I can't imagine why anyone would've bought this back in the day unless they had way too much money and time to spend.

PASS

Marvel Zombies (Review)

Another comic I remember reading was this one. A universe where the zombie plague is unleashed within the Marvel Universe, turning all the heroes into flesh eating zombies! I know they went on to make sequels to this series but I only have the first one.

Kirkman is no stranger to Zombie stories. As writer for the Walking Dead it makes sense he would be at the helm of a project such as this. I wouldn't mind reading the others someday if I can find them.

If you've been on the fence about this one, I'd say go for it. It's worth your time if this kind of thing is up your alley!

The Sentry (review)

A comic that's basically welcoming a Superman-like character into the Marvel Universe but pretending he was there the whole time and that the heroes erased his memory from everyone in their universe until the Sentry himself discovered who he was again.

The story isn't bad. I remember reading a few of these back in the day but was glad to read a little more from this collection. I like how Sentry's flashback's show fake Marvel comic covers (and sometimes art) from the 60's, pretending that even the reader of the comic forgot about him as well.

Not a bad premise. Pretty good stuff!

Why people hate #1 Teams

Today I thought I'd give an opinion of why folks hate teams that always win. There's a lot of folks out there who hate the Pats. But I don't see the difference between themselves and Alabama. They both have talent-laden players at every position, consistently dominated their respective leagues and get calls from the Refs almost every time.

I can't tell you the number of videos I've seen from comparison shots of plays that looked similar but the Ref's ignored the penalty because it was the Pats and the Crimson Tide committing the infraction.

Look at the Yankees. I admit, I hate them. They win all the time BUY the best players and calls always seem to go there way. Case in point was back in 2000 when obvious fan interference gave the Yankees a game winning homerun in the playoffs and the Umpires ignored it completely.

Everyone loves a winner and that goes for Refs and Umps as well. It's just how sports are. Though I hate Bama because I'm an Auburn fan, I understand why others hate them as well.

But any team that can beat these guys deserves the win. They overcome amazing odds to beat teams more talented and loved by the refs/umps which ensures close calls go against them. Though the Yankees will always be like this, Football teams will rise and fall.

Back in the day it was the Cowboys and Notre Dame that got all the love in football and everyone said the same things about them.

To the winner go the spoils or in this case, the rulings on the field and that's just the nature of the game.

.......all that said, I still hope the Yankees lose every game of the season. GO METS!!!