Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case Files #61: Bug

His name is Bug. That is possibly the best name anyone could think of.

Once upon a time, Marvel Comics got the comic book rights to, of all things, 2001:  A Space Odyssey.  Anyone who’s seen that movie knows it’s, well, an odd choice for any sort of adaptation for younger readers, but it still happened.  It was also an ongoing series.  Where do you take a story like that once you’ve recounted the story from the movie?  This wasn’t Star Wars with the promise of ongoing adventures for the characters.  Part of the answer for writer/artist Jack Kirby was to create a new character that would cross over to the main Marvel Universe, namely Machine Man.

That was not the only time a licensed character got into the main universe.  That also happened with Bug.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #60: Ronin

You’ll never guess who’s behind the mask. Seriously. Even I’m not sure here.

When Brian Michael Bendis took over the Avengers titles, he decided to blow up the team.  That was literal in more than a few cases, like Jack of Hearts.  Hawkeye, who Bendis claimed was his favorite character, died in another massive explosion but emerged later thanks to House of M.  These things happen.

But Bendis then brought in a new team that he saw as a chance to do an all-star team like the original Avengers line-up was, but with the all-stars that existed then.  Not all of them made sense, and some of them were questionable picks.  But among the promotional art was a “new” character called Ronin.  Who was Ronin?  Well, that depended on what comic you were reading.

Deadpool Interviewing Wolverine Is Exactly What You’d Expect

Ok, ok, it is Ryan Reynolds interviewing Hugh Jackman during the press junket for Jackman’s new film Eddie The Eagle.  And it is exactly what you expect, if you are expecting hilarity.  See the interview after the cut.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Hero Case Files #52: Stacy-X

Let me say this in advance…sorry, Jenny.

One of the purposes of the X-Men over the years has been to show they’re a diverse group.  Mutants can come from anywhere, and they don’t always have to be good or noble.  For every Russian farmboy, German circus performer, or African goddess, there was some mutant who came from the wrong side of the tracks and was trying to make the world a better place anyway, the only way the person knew how.

That brings us to Stacy-X.  She was a prostitute.

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Secret Wars 51

Life is funny sometimes.  When I wrote my walk through of Secret Wars #9 I mentioned that I had read all the events books except for Armor Wars #½.  Since it was a limited giveaway at Toys R’ Us (a store I don’t frequent) I had a hard time getting my hands it.  Strangely enough, it was literally half an hour after that review posted to the website, I happened upon a copy.

After the break I will inch closer to completing this odyssey with the aforementioned Armor Wars #½, as well as finish off Weirdworld (#3-5) and X-Men ’92 (Infinite) (#7-8).  As usual, this way be spoilers.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Case Files#50: Feral

Just try and put your body into this position and see how benevolent you are afterwards.

There was a time when Marvel’s X-Force was one of its hottest properties.  As drawn by Rob Liefeld, the book chronicled a group of hard-hitting mutants who believed in preemptive strikes against the bad mutants of the world, and likewise for not being so gentle and leaving them to walk away.  The original line-up has gotten a lot of mileage at Marvel, with many of the characters appearing in various X-books since the team first premiered in 1991.

So, what went wrong with Feral?

No One Stays Dead In Comics Except Bucky, um, Jason Todd, hmmm…Uncle Ben?

A day after making headlines that there would be a major death in Civil War II that was essentially a marketing ploy, Marvel is proving their point by teasing that someone would soon be brought back from the dead.

So, who could it be?  The first one that comes to mind is Wolverine.  But with an All-New Wolverine only launched two months ago and Old Man Logan now kicking around the Marvel U, that seems unnecessary.  Professor X has a habit of routinely coming back from the dead.  As does Jean Grey, though there is a time displaced version of Jean currently around.  Possibly Namor, but seems a lot of hype for someone who most might not even realize is dead.  There is a lot of speculation online about it possibly being Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben or Original Recipe Gwen Stacy…but does anyone want that?

If you need more fuel for speculation, Marvel’s website has a list of deceased characters, but I don’t know how up to date it is.

This could also be an elaborate headfake.  And not as straighforward as it seems.  Maybe Deadpool is changing his name to Lifepool.  Or StartwritingmysequelPool.  Or some other wink and nod situation that Marvel will tease us with for awhile.

Ryan thinks it would be hilarious if whoever they bring back is the one that gets killed in Civil War II.

And these days it takes no time for parodies to appear online.  See what I mean after the break.

Bold Predictions: 2016 Edition- Watson’s Rebuttal

I’m totally off the grid these days, but Ryan’s predictions are so bad I had to come in and rip them to shreds and give you the REAL numbers.  His bold predictions about how the 2015 domestic box office would turn out were pretty weak.  He called his performance was mixed–but for him mixed was chocolate plus peanut butter.  In reality, it is a mix of Ex-lax and motor oil.  So I am going to go, one by one, through his 2016 picks and give the real number.  We have a lunch bet on who has the lowest delta between the acutals and their predictions.  NO PRICE IS RIGHT RULES IN EFFECT!

Bold Predictions: 2016 Edition

One year ago I made some bold predictions about how the 2015 domestic box office would turn out.  My performance was mixed–got some, missed some others.  But now it’s time to look ahead to 2016.  Jump after the break to see what I predict will be the top ten grossing films of the year along with 33 other movies I’m making some bold predictions on!

Where’s Black Widow: Asian Edition

 

This is tame by comparison.

 
I haven’t had an article on Gabbing Geek for a while not because I’ve been to lazy or busy, although both are certainly true the rest of the year, but because I’ve been in China and Hong Kong. And while I’m still overseas I did find a couple of things for sale showing the Asian version of excluding female characters from toy sets. While U.S. fans still ask Where’s Rey in Star Wars sets it was only a brief few months we were asking the same about Black Widow in Age of Ultron sets. If you thought replacing Widow with Ultron was bad, check out what they do in China and Hong Kong after the break.