It’s been a hectic last few weeks here at BurnAllZombies: those of you who know us will know why it’s been a bit quiet on the updates, but with 2010 just around the corner, updates will be coming at you so fast, you won’t know what’s hit you.
New Year’s Eve is as good a time as any to look back over some of the best of what 2009 had to over. On that note, we bring you the inaugural Burnt Zombie Awards, a run-down of the finest movies, games, music, TV and comics had to offer this year. Of course, if you disagree, we can discuss below. It’s not as if we’ll send the zombies around if we don’t agree with you…
Amongst the other bad guys that the Comic Catch-Up came up against this week, we had to deal with aliens, Doombots and a lot of decapitation. With no DC stuff this week (don’t worry, we’ll be looking more in-depth at Blackest Night eventually), we take a look at some annuals coming at the end of the year, with Dark Avengers Annual #1 and X-Force Annual #1 as well as Siege: The Cabal, Strange #2 and Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #5.
BurnAllZombies’ Comic Catch-Up fittingly returns from the grave with some nostalgic heroics, a comatose man who is no longer ‘iron’ and one of Marvel’s lesser-known heroes taking down an airship with his hand. It’s the first look at some of DC Comics’ titles, including Detective Comics #859 and Superman: Secret Origin #3 while Marvel’s entries this week are Amazing Spider-Man #613, Fantastic Four #573, Invincible Iron Man #20, New Avengers #59, Secret Warriors #10 and Uncanny X-Men #517, though we’re not forgetting about Ultimate Comics Avengers #4.
The after-effects of the Utopia crossover continue to be felt in the Marvel Universe, both from the mutant side of things and as other characters have started to look at their own actions during the Dark Reign, along with some long-seated revelations in the X-books. This entry of the Comic Catch-up takes a look at Dark Avengers #9, X-Factor #48 and X-Men: Legacy – Annual#1.
Even with the best intentions, the second week of the Comic Catch-Up escaped me, so here’s a quick catch-up for the week of September 10th, a week of Marvel comics that saw Norman Osborn taken down a few pegs with regard to the mutant situation in the culmination of Matt Fraction’s Utopia arc, ushering in a new status quo for mutant-kind, and beginning the important The List banner of books which may or may not lead to the end of the Osborn’s Dark Reign.
This entry of the Comic Catch-Up takes a look at Dark Avengers: Uncanny X-Men – Exodus one-shot, Dark Reign: The List – Avengers one-shot, Thunderbolts #135, War of Kings: Who Will Rule? one-shotand Ultimate Comics: Avengers #2.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted something comic-related, and it’s mostly been because I’m just not sure how to go about it: review a few comics each week, or wait until story arcs have finished and then look back on them as a whole. For the time being, I’m going to go with the former, since it means I can cover one-shots as well, but you can expect some retrospectives on big storylines as well, all under the Comic Catch-Up category. Any ideas for changes, or any titles you’d like to see covered, drop me a comment below: it also gives me an excuse to add more titles to my pull list.
And yes, the date above might look weird, but it’s the European format for the US release date…go figure.
This week, I take a look at Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #2, Cable #18 and Strange Tales #1.
Welcome to Arkham Asylum: check your sanity at reception and settle down for the craziest outing Batman has had in a while.
Developed by the UK-based Rocksteady Games, Batman: Arkham Asylum is the first original game to star the Caped Crusader in over five years (we’re not counting Batman Begins becuase it was a movie tie-in, and fun as it was, Lego Batman slipped under many a gamer’s radar.) Although graphic novels and mini-series have carried the name of Arkham Asylum, the game has a fairly original story as written by Paul Dini, one of the head writers of the award winning Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s, and taking its cue from the series, the game is surprisingly deep and mature, while also incredibly fun.
Arkham Asylum, the mad-house and prison for many of Gotham’s worst criminals, is the setting of the game, an island separate from the city proper with several buildings, caves and the obligatory sewer system underneath. When Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon arrive at the asylum with the Joker in tow, they find that they’ve been played, with the Joker all along planning to be captured so he can arrange to take over the island. With Gordon kidnapped, Batman searches for a way to stop his enemy’s plan, but the Joker isn’t working alone, and is being helped by fellow inmates, with Bane, Killer Croc, Zsazs, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and, of course, Harley Quinn to help him out.
The stock market isn’t usually a topic we’ll cover here on BurnAllZombies, but this latest news is something we just couldn’t ignore, the news that Disney have acquired Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash transaction worth approximately $4billion. That’s…a lot more money than I can count.
Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company had the following to say:
This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories.
Interestingly enough is Iger’s mention of “entertainment properties,” highlighting Marvel’s value as more than just a comic book company, but also with big-screen potential (and much more) as well.
It’s an interesting development, and there’s some more information that I’d like to know before deciding on whether it’s a good deal or not. On the upside, this gives Marvel much more money to work with, potentially giving them the buying power they need to buy back film rights for the Spider-Man franchise from Sony, or mutants and the X-Men from Fox. But there’s also a point where we have to wonder just how much influence Disney will have over Marvel’s publishing division, and we can only hope that the company’s comics remain free to publish as they have been for years. But given the recent merger between Disney and Pixar, with both companies remaining free to operate individually, we can hope that there won’t be any adverse effects.
Although unconfirmed by news networks, we’re pretty sure that this may very well be the biggest and best story to hit the internet today. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 will be being played continuously once it comes out (still up for debate which console it will be bought for though) and after confirming some weeks ago that Jean Grey is playable we now also have confirmation that Ms. Marvel will be included in the roster of playable characters for the game.
It remains unclear whether this will be the Carol Danvers iteration of the character or Karla Sofen/Moonstone (who currently holds the title, working with Norman Osborn under the Dark Reign) although it’s likely (as with the first game) that both costumes will be unlockable.
Now that we Jean and Ms. Marvel are set on the team, we just need to pick two more characters and we have the BurnAllZombies line-up.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is released cross-platform in September 2009.
The SDCC news just keeps on coming, and this time, it’s a big one. For me, anyway.
You may have guessed by now that I’m a fan of all things X-Men, across all genres (well, maybe not movies anymore, to be honest.) The fandom extends to video games as well, and X-Men: Legends and its sequel have gone through more plays than any other game on any other console. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance may not have gotten the same amount of play, but as the spriritual successor to X-Men: Legends it’s only just a matter of time.
We’re still waiting for the full line-up of playable characters to be announced for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 but one of the earliest videos from SDCC has me sufficiently excited about the game’s release to pre-order (maybe even on more than one platform…or would that be too much?) Jean Grey, perhaps my favourite X-Men character, is playable, a sure-fire way to mean that this disc won’t be leaving my console for a good few months.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is due for release September 15, 2009.
Now, in part two, we take a look at some of the villains and other characters featured throughout the series, along with the storylines adapted over its five season run, and how they fit into the bigger picture of the X-Men universe.
One of the highpoints of the X-Men animated series was its willingness to include characters from across the Marvel Universe: some were simple cameos, others had episodes dedicated to them and their origins, and others still were new characters, introduced, created and adapted solely for the series. Read more…
Anyone who watched cartoons in the early 90s should have fond memories of Fox’s “X-Men” cartoon which ran for five seasons between 1992 and 1997. Of course, it was a bit later than that by the time it hit shores outside of the US, and lasted longer than that in re-runs, especially when the success of the movies brought the animated series back onto TV.
This Flashback Feature is dedicated to a look at the 90s TV series, and most importantly, its ties to its comic book origins. But before we start looking at the show and its characters, why not remind yourself of the very first reason why the show was so beloved to begin with…?
The “X-Men” animated series has very close ties to the storylines of the comics at the time, right down to the cast of characters. Part of the reason it has proven so successful with the X-Men fanbase has been because of how faithful it remains to its subject matter, even adapting whole storylines for plot points, both large over-arching plots and individual stories. Over five seasons and 76 episodes, Fox’s series provided many people with their first introduction to the world of the mutants, in many ways paving the way for the movies to take over the box office (not to mention two further animated series that have followed in its footsteps.) But to appreciate everything that “X-Men” was, it helps to know what went before. Read more…
It’s been a long time coming, but Mike Carey’s uber-arc of “X-Men: Legacy” is coming to a close, with some massive changes for Professor Charles Xavier and Rogue.
Since Carey started writing “X-Men” with issue #188 (becoming “X-Men: Legacy” with issue #208 in the wake of the Messiah CompleX crossover) there has been an inevitable lead-up to something involving Rogue and her powers, from downloading multiple personalities to having them wiped by the child mutant “Messiah” and then using her powers against Mystique. For the last few issues, Mystique’s personality has been sharing Rogue’s body, influencing her and helping her out with the occasional fight, even though all Rogue has wanted was some peace and quiet.
No, the irony of using a title for this post the same week as “Star Trek” opens in the cinema isn’t lost on me, although the “Star Trek” reference might be a bit of a stretch. (Though I do love me some Muppets-style-Star-Trek references.)
Anyway, the picture to the side, complete with its stupid (stupidly AWESOME) “Scarface” reference is taken from Marvel’s “War of Kings” issue 3, out this week. Despite my complete and utter love for Marvel comics, I’ve never really gotten into their space-based stuff until recently: “Annihilation” and “Annihilation: Conquest” passed me by with little acknowledgement on my part, and I’m kind of regretting it now.
I started reading “War of Kings” thanks to X-Men: no surprise there, but some of the stuff happening in this is spinning out of Brubaker’s solo run on “Uncanny X-Men” and his “Deadly Genesis” mini-series, with the discovery of the third Summers’ brother, the man now known as Emperor Vulcan of the Shi’ar Empire. As Vulcan’s megalomania has increased, he’s set his sights on taking over the galaxy, and more importantly, hunting down the former Majestrix of the Shi’ar, Lilandra Neramani (who’s aligned herself with Vulcan’s brother Alex Summers and the rest of the Starjammers.)
Okay, so all this sounds really complicated and stupid, but…it’s really not! There’s a hell of a lot going on here that ties into some of my favourite comics and characters (remember, Carol Danvers even went on adventures with the Starjammers for a while) in the Marvel Universe, along with some well-written-and-crafted political-style shenanigans, intrigue and SPACE BATTLES. There’s some pretty big spoilers ‘neath the cut.
And that was it: in a couple of flashes of blinding light, Carol Danvers goes bye-byes (in the recent issue of Ms. Marvel, #37 for those who care.)
I’ll put my hands up and say that one of the main reasons for liking Ms. Marvel was always her connection to the X-Men: I never knew who she was ’til watching the 90s animated series and the episode that explained Rogue’s powers. I also had a few Ms. Marvel cards back when I collected the trading card deck (I think that was ’92…I would’ve been 7, I’m allowed not know who she is at age 7.)
Anyway, Carol Danvers has always been one of my favourite non-mutant characters in comics. She was pretty powerful, had the ties to other characters…it just made sense for her to be so awesome. So her getting her own series after “House of M” was a highpoint of that series, and I’ve really liked what Brian Reed’s done with her. She’s a soldier, always has been, and I really liked how he managed to combine that with her attempts to be a superhero, to be human, to have a life. And now, if the name of the arc and the art below has proven correct…well, she’s gone, after a somewhat harrowing…well, I’m going to call it ‘illness’
But with the way things are going with the Marvel Universe, with Dark Reign in full swing, Karla Sofen has taken over the mantle of Ms. Marvel, it makes me wonder if things will stay the same, or all will be changed, changed utterly (a terrible beauty is born, and all that jazz.)
So X-Men 3 just…well, completely ruined the franchise for me, as well as shitting all over, I repeat ALL OVER one of my favourite characters, and plots (ie. the Dark Phoenix Saga.)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine looks like it’ll be doing something similar, anyway. I’m not the hugest Wolverine fan, but the character’s alright…I still prefer Steve Blum’s take on him than Hugh Jackman (for the uninitiated, Blum voices Wolverine in all the animated/video game appearances of the character since X-Men: Evolution…he’s perfect.)
So let’s see, where have they gone wrong with this?
Well, for starters, if you believe the news floating around the interwebs, the scary-looking mutant dude is Weapon XI, in the body of Wade Wilson. Meh, I don’t care much for Deadpool, but way to SHIT ALL OVER CHARACTERS (again.)
Emma Frost…she’s organic diamond, not some “chick” with “sparkle” powers. There is no way in hell that that…girl is in any way connected to Emma Frost. No.
Gambit. Who cares? I know I don’t. Then again, I suppose they’ve had Jubilee and Nightcrawler in the films, the only characters to SUCK MORE ASS THAN A CAJUN THIEF.
Meh, rant is coming to a close now, so I’ll just leave you with the trailer. Part of me wants to see this for reviewing purposes, just so I can absolutely SLATE it. Cos I so will.
This week, we'll be launching @unpopcorn_com: go follow us there for more information, updates, or if you want to get involved. 1 year ago
You might have figured this out by now, but BurnAllZombies.com will soon be no more. But don't be sad, cos we're not disappearing completely 1 year ago
This week's ZombieZine: Oscars, Zombie webcomics, dead superheroes and new Sony consoles (and more.) http://wp.me/pN7Wh-Cc1 year ago
This week, we've got pictures from X-Men First Class, launch info for the Nintendo 3DS, Batman casting and more http://wp.me/pN7Wh-BS1 year ago
It’s been a hectic last few weeks here at BurnAllZombies: those of you who know us will know why it’s been a bit quiet on the updates, but with 2010 just around the corner, updates will be coming at you so fast, you won’t know what’s hit you.
In the 
Anyone who watched cartoons in the early 90s should have fond memories of Fox’s “X-Men” cartoon which ran for five seasons between 1992 and 1997. Of course, it was a bit later than that by the time it hit shores outside of the US, and lasted longer than that in re-runs, especially when the success of the movies brought the animated series back onto TV.
It’s been a long time coming, but Mike Carey’s uber-arc of “X-Men: Legacy” is coming to a close, with some massive changes for Professor Charles Xavier and Rogue. 
No, the irony of using a title for this post the same week as “Star Trek” opens in the cinema isn’t lost on me, although the “Star Trek” reference might be a bit of a stretch. (Though I do love me some Muppets-style-Star-Trek references.)
And that was it: in a couple of flashes of blinding light, Carol Danvers goes bye-byes (in the recent issue of Ms. Marvel, #37 for those who care.)
correct…well, she’s gone, after a somewhat harrowing…well, I’m going to call it ‘illness’ 
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