Renaissance Launch Recap

Okay, I should’ve probably written this a week ago, but as you well know, I’m lazy as all fuck. That said, I would like you to know that the delay with which this was posted is no indication of the success of the launch nor my opinion on the actual book itself.

So, what is Renaissance? If you’ve never been here before, seen it on  Facebook or you just not into the local comic book scene, I’d be happy to fill you in since you obviously don’t have many friends. Aaanyway, Renaissance is the brainchild of Ernest Hernandez, his events company, Hobbylink Productions, Philip Tan and other great people whose names escape me at the moment. It was born out of the passion to help out victims of the Ondoy typhoon that hit the country a few months ago. Philip and Ernest wanted to pitch, so they decided to do something together with the comic book artists of the Philippines. It grew from there.

It snowballed into something bigger than just an event. They put together an art book depicting different scenarios with the theme of helping the Filipinos during the storm - most of the art, at least. The book of Filipino art is what is formally known as Renaissance.
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Comic of the Week: Uncanny X-Men #521

Uncanny X-Men has been getting some flack from a ton of people lately, especially because of Land’s art and because Fraction’s writing on it isn’t as stellar as it is expected to be. I personally disagree with the latter reason to a certain degree, but of course, everyone’s entitled to their own misguided opinions.

Everyone kinda changed their tone, however, with Uncanny X-Men #521.

Written by Matt “Rockstar” Fraction
Pencils by Greg “Pornface” Land
Inked by Jay “Pornface Inker” Leisten
Colored by Justin “Porno-color” Ponsor
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Comicology Interview: Liezl Buenaventura

Comic book people know a ton of shit about a ton of shit. We’ve seen galaxies ripped apart, worlds eaten and invaded, heroes killed and villains foiled. We know what to do when zombies attack, when Cyclops shoots an optic blast, what to punch Superman with, and why Batman is so cranky. What people like me have very little experience with, however, are girls. Girls are a fucking mystery to us. We simply just don’t interact with them all that much. Women just don’t wander too far into the sacred comic book shop social circles.

Unfortunately, gentlemen, we have been infiltrated. I would like you to meet Liezl Buenaventura - a book artist. OH NOES! WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO!?

No worries, my friends. I will take the bullet and try to understand this woman of which we speak.

Comicology: Hello, Liezl of the Buenaventura clan.

Liezl of the Buenaventura clan: Hello.

C: Were you a comic book fan as a kid, of course, assuming that women pass through childhood?

L: Well, I was always a huge fan of comic books when I was a kid, and after I got tired of my Archie’s Digest and Casper the Friendly Ghost, I graduated to reading Spider-man over my brother’s shoulder. He was a huge collector of Marvel titles (though Spidey was his favourite), and because I always wanted to hang out with him, I just ended up picking it up. Eventually, he outgrew his comic phase, but I never did. I’m a huge fan of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Manga, and usually pick up whatever indy stuff I can.

C: How did you develop your artistic abilities? Did you always want to be an artist? This is, of course, assuming that women have things such as aspirations and goals.
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Quick Announcement of EPIC EPICNESS!

Announcing the TRIUMPHANT RETURN of the MOST AWESOME WEBSITE ON THE PLANET!

HIDE YOUR DAUGHTERS!!! NOW!!!

Click on the image to go to The Man Blog (forum). We’ll have a proper blog soon enough, motherfuckers!

The Renaissance is Tomorrow!

This, my friends, is tomorrow!

Experience the awesome awesomeness that is the Filipino talent! We are the REAL secret invasion.

And just to prove it, Renaissance is holding a comic book character contest. Every geek in the world with an over active imagination has created his/her own character at least once in their pathetic sad existences. This is your chance to make your parents proud!

US Toy Fair

The US Toy Fair is still technically in full swing in that part of the world. I, on the other hand, am fucking figuring out ways on how to make more money because of ALL THE FUCKING AWESOME SHIT THAT WILL COME OUT THIS YEAR! No, seriously, there are some fucking hardcore shit being released.

Because I am merely human, I cannot show everything coming out. I will, however, because of my vanity, show the shit I will be stealing money for.

You’ve got the Extremis Iron Man. I’m still confused as to which wave this’ll come out in, but fuck the hoarding motherfuckers if they hoard it. Here’s a pic.

Is that not the sweetest Iron Man action figure EVER!? Fucking FINALLY we get an Extremis action figure.

There will also be a modern Thor, which is made of pure thunder and awesome. Here’s a pic:

I forget which wave this guy comes from, too, but I think he’s from HAMMER Files Wave 2. There’s also going to be a Juggernaut, a modern Luke Cage, a Havok, and fucken’ Galactus. Thankfully, I’m very happy with my Marvel Legends Galactus. We all know about the upcoming Iron Man figures coming out, yes? Here are links to the galleries: here, here and here.

I want ALL the 3.75″ Iron Man figures, except the villains. I also want this 6 inch figure:

Oh, and there are going to be Black Widow and Deadpool 6″ Marvel Legends figures. They’re TRU exclusive, but I guess I can get my grubby hands on them if I tried really, really hard and paid a ton of money.

Now, please excuse me while I go have an aneurysm because I can’t afford any of this shit.

Planet Hulk: Smash?

Planet Hulk is the direct to DVD adaptaion of Greg Pak and Carlos Pagulayan’s Planet Hulk storyline. The storyline defined who Hulk would be for the next year or so after its release; and a lot of people loved the way G. Pak handled the Hulk. Did the animated movie do justice to the original story, or maybe surpass it? Unfortunately, the long and short of it is that it almost feels like a hurried synopsis rather than a full adaptaion. Let’s break it down into its components.

Story

The basic outline of the story’s there- Illuminati guys ship Hulkie into outer space, Hulk fights for life, Hulk gets captured, Hulk fights for freedom, and becomes king. It’s all there, but some key elements and juicy bits of the storyline in the comics felt rushed or just weren’t there in the movie. I do, however, understand that it is almost impossible to fit any written story into a good 1.5 movie. To achieve that, the movie took some liberties. It is accurate to say that the essence stays the same, though.

That said, I felt that the presentation of the basic story would work well to someone who didn’t read Planet Hulk or a casual Hulk fan. The only reason it felt off to me was because I was able to digest the comic book TPB. So it’s kinda like showing me the buffet but only giving me a sampler platter. It does serve its purpose, though. The way it was told was surprisingly efficient, though the core focus was on the smashing, the ass kicking and the name taking. (more…)

Comic of the Week: Ang Alamat ni Manny V

First things first, folks. I am not endorsing nor bringing down any candidate. This blog will remain politically neutral, and it does not reflect my own personal political views. Okay, that said, let’s get to this week’s Comic of the Week, Ang Alamat ni Manny V!

Okay, I don’t know who to credit this to because there are none mentioned within the issue. So I guess credit goes to whoever made this comic.
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Woah!

Everyone’s familiar with the Konami code, right? Here’s a cool little trick a friend of mine pointed out to me earlier today. I’m actually quite disappointed in myself to not have found out about it sooner. Dunno exactly how long it’s been up, but my friend, Peter Juan says it’s been up for more than a month.

Since the Konami code has many versions, apparently, I might as well give you a step-by-step process.

1. Go to Marvel.com
2. Press up + up + down + down + left + right + left + right (arrow keys) + B + A + Enter
3. Enjoy.

Here’s a sneak peak:

He is just everywhere this month!

Marvel Shirts at SM MOA

Normally, when I find something good, like a well stocked toy store that no one goes to or a place with cheap yet amazing taco food thingies, I just keep it to myself in fear of them getting more and more popular. However, a discovery took place last weekend that reduced me to a stuttering compulsive buying fanboy and I just felt like sharing it. Yes, I had a bad case of g.a.s. or Geek Acquisition Syndromre.

Lemme tell you the story.

My girlfriend and I went to MOA to catch Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs in 3D, which was really entertaining, by the way. On our way up to the second floor of MOA’s department store, she spotted a shirt with Daredevil on it. She pointed it out to me and I spazzed out. I pushed my way to the top of the escalator just so I could hop on the one going down. She gladly followed me.

When I arrived at the Marvel clothing section for big boys, I picked up 8 shirts right away! Budget constraints made me limit my purchase to only 4, though. Fortunately, the girlfriend paid for one of the shirts as it was her Valentine’s gift for me. She’s a sweetheart like that. Here were my choices:

An awesome Iron Man shirt. There were actually tons of other designs. One was even a classic comic book cover, and another had just the helmet, and it looked quite fantastic. It sucks hard that those didn’t come in my size anymore. And my size is Ultra Fat.

Cyclops, bitchez! They had an assortment of other X-Men designs- Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler. I will go back for the Nightcrawler shirts next pay day.

Spider-Man designs were aplenty. They had swinging Spidey, a Spidey with the Marvel logo, the Amazing Spider-Man logo and a couple others. The best Spider-Man shirt would definitely have to be the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15. Those didn’t come in my size either. Maybe next week.

My second favorite shirt.  Yes, second. It’s Daredevil. ‘Nuff said.

My girlfriend’s gift to me, IRON BEAR! Okay, so it didn’t exactly come from the Marvel shop section. Came from that other store with other bearbrick designs. It’s shiny and cute.

There were other characters, too. If you’re into Captain America, Hulk or Thing, you’d find them there.

I’m not entirely sure if MOA is the only SM that carries the line. I haven’t seen them outside of MOA, and I passed by SM Makati earlier today. Anyway, at MOA, it’s at the ground floor, near that Kodak thing. Each shirt goes for P299.75. They’re a bit tight but the cloth is comfy. Go ahead, check it out.

Know what would be cool, though? THIS Iron Man Costume.

Iron Man 2 Game Trailer- War Machine

I think the old Iron Man game won the award for being the suckiest game everyone played. Besides the eye candy, there really wasn’t much to the gameplay. Fly here, destroy that. It was cool to see but it got repetitive. My review of it didn’t get very high, just 2.5 out of 5.

Sega did say they were going to take what they learned from the old title and apply it to the new game. Who knows, yeah, maybe it would end up being the next Spider-Man 2 game. Check out the trailer.

Sega is now going “There. I fixed it.”

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Character Analysis Part 2

Here we are with our second installment of the character line-up analysis for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. We finished with Spider-Man in the last one, and we continue with one of his nemises, Venom.

Venom is, truth be told, is like the leg bones on a whale - quite fucking useless. He attempts to be a tank with his Leaping Feast attack with auto-heal, but his HP is still a bit low and his attacks are mediocre, at best. His range is also nothing to excited about either. He’s good as mid-range character, maybe, but still doesn’t shine well in that department either. His melee is slow, on top of all that. 1.5 out of 5. Best thing about him is his alt costume.
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