Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Doctor's next traveling companion revealed

And her name is Jenna-Louise Coleman. The name of her character hasn't been revealed yet, but she'll be replacing Amy and Rory Pond when they depart next season. I'm a bit disappointed, though, because I was hoping the Doctor's next companion would be Sarah Jane Smith's son, Luke, who could hold a grudge against the Doctor for not saving his mother from her cancer.

Oh well, here's to hoping she does a good job and can fill the shoes of her predecessor, Amy. It won't be an easy feat. It is amusing that Coleman has gone from a relative unknown to famous overnight.

(h/t I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters... for the picture)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

John Carter is such a huge bomb, it might just be atomic

It certainly managed to destroy about 200 million dollars of Disney's money at least. Yup, the movie based on Edgar Rice Burrough's A Princess of Mars - and erroneously renamed under the belief that guys wouldn't watch a movie with that name - will probably end up not just as a box office bomb, but the biggest ever. What's astounding is that the director, Andrew Stanton, is the same guy who gave us Finding Nemo and WALL-E. I guess making beloved animated films is a lot easier than a live actioner.

Oh well, Disney is a huge company and they'll survive. All they have to do is put out one or two new animated movies and they'll more than recoup that lost 200 million.

If you're interested, Wikipedia has a list of the biggest box office bombs. Green Lantern's nearer to the top than I expected and Scott Pilgrim is on there too.

(h/t Greyhawk Grognard)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Just finished reading Robert Conroy's 1862

I'll write a review tomorrow, but suffice to say that this was a pretty good book. The premise is simple: In 1862, a U.S. Navy ship stopped a British mail ship, named the Trent and removed two representatives of the Confederate States of America bound for England and France. Now in real life, it was a debacle that almost brought Britain and the U.S. to war, but diplomacy (and more than a little butt kissing) avoided that fate. In Robert Conroy's book, however, those overtures fail and England goes to war. This is all part of a plan hatched by the Prime Minister of England, Lord Palmerston, to remove the United States as a economic and military rival by ensuring a divided America. What happens is far from what is expected.

Like I said, it was a good book and if you like reading alternative history, then check it out.

Picture via Barnes & Noble.

In which I give Ms. Marvel's new costume a 'meh'

So Marvel is going to rename Carol Danvers from Ms. Marvel to Captain Marvel and give her a redesign to go along with it. The name change I don't mind - Ms. Marvel isn't exactly the most imposing of superhero names and is out of place since there's no Mr. Marvel to justify the differentiation. She wouldn't be the first woman to have the well used Captain Marvel nom de guerre, Monica Rambeau (Photon, Pulsar, several others) was the first. Hit the jump to see Danvers' new look.

I don't know, it just doesn't look right. The short hair makes her look a bit too much like another blonde superheroine - Power Girl. The costume itself is unimaginative and bland. Also, I'm pretty sure that no one other than a body builder or the Hulk would have thighs that big. Was she using a Thighmaster on her downtime and things just got out of control?


I'll admit that I'll miss Ms. Marvel's old costume, but not terribly so. It was more than a little ridiculous looking to have a woman flying around in this. To quote Robin from Young Justice, I'm whelmed.

Pictures via Super Punch and Player Affinity.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

So basically, Voldemort was a Lich?

Did he turn his nose into a horcrux too?
I had this realization late last night. If you think about Voldemort and his plan to achieve immortality, then he's really no different than a Lich from Dungeons & Dragons or Greyhawk. For the uninitiated, a Lich is a spellcaster who attempts to become immortal by creating an object called a phylactery and placing his soul into it. That sounds a lot like Lord Voldemort's horcruxes from Harry Potter, doesn't? Another similarity is that the phylactery must be hidden and protected, because if it's ever destroyed, then the Lich can then be killed permanently.

Now, I'm not saying that J.K. Rowling ripped off D&D, because she didn't. A quick check of Wikipedia shows that the Lich predated the latter, so more than likely, she took it from the same source. Even if she had taken it from D&D, then that just shows she has excellent tastes.

Pictures via Wikipedia and Greyhawkery.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

So it begins again

Megatron/Ron Paul 2012: The presidential ticket from Hell itself.
Transformers Hall of Fame 2012, awww yeaah. Every year Hasbro holds a vote on which Transformer is inducted. This year the choices are Beast Wars Megatron, Wheeljack, Arcee, Rodimus, and Sky-Byte. No idea who to vote for, but I'm leaning towards Wheeljack or Arcee.

Picture via David Willis.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Che Cobravara was an underappreciated revolutionary

COBRAAAAA!!!
And of course, those damned American imperialists sent their G.I. Joe death squad to murder Cobravara in cold blood.

Picture via ninjaink.

Er...well, sleep is overrated anyways

Never sleeping again post 2012. This and several others were made out of the stuff of nightmares by GeekyVixen, who is selling them on Etsy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to break open a couple bottles of Blood Wine and hope that washes my memory clean of these things.

(h/t Nerd Approved)

Oh hey, look, Gundams

I went to an indoor flea market over the weekend and picked these four fine fellows.

Sorry for the poor quality, but I've only got a webcam. I really need to save up and get a digital.

RX-78GP01 Gundam "Zephyranthes" from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Operation Stardust.

Gundam Ez8 from Mobile Suit Gundam: 8th MS Team.

RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type from 8th MS Team.

Wing Zero Custom from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.
As you can see, they didn't exactly come buried with accessories. Ez8 and the RX-79[G] came with a bazooka, a gun, a shield and two detachable packs. Zephy came with a shield, a beam saber (possibly not his own) and poor Wing Zero has nothing. I still think they were worth it for what I paid for them, four bucks.

Speaking of the last two Gundams, I didn't readily recognize them and had to spend time on the Gundam Wiki and Google to figure out what series they came from. Ironic, considering that the first Gundam series I watched was Wing.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

RIP Ralph McQuarrie

Damn, this sucks hard vacuum. Ralph McQuarrie, who did the concept art for the original Star Wars trilogy died today at the age of 82. He also did concept art for other movies and the original Battlestar Galactica. Hit the jump to check out two pieces of his artwork for the movies.



All pictures via Wookieepedia.