Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comics. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

Injustice; Gods Among Us: All it took was a bomb, some gas, and a laugh.

Some say the DC Universe is like a Greek play, a Shakespearean performance. Some choose to stray away from these routes, where the events are mere coincidences, noting more, nothing less. Others try to embrace it; the extent of success is up to the viewer's choice. Allow me to take you on a path, one where the course of an entire universe was changed forever by one bad day. To take this path, there are two places to look. The first being the comics for the lead in to what they were inspired by. Welcome, to the world of Injustice. Welcome to a tale of death, destruction, and the collapse of everything you thought you knew about DC's strongest friendship.


Sunday, 6 August 2017

Heroes of Inkopolis: Time to paint the valley Pink, Green, Blue and Orange

First of all, before starting, #TeamKetchup. It's not Jam! (and we are working on a joint review for Splatoon 2, we're just trying to find the time to record)

It's safe to say Splatoon was a breakout hit for the Wii U, and success is continuing for Splatoon 2. But with every success, there are its fans, and while fan games might get taken down by Nintendo, fan art seems to be safe... assuming the artwork itself is safe for all places such as a workplace. While some prefer just to draw, some choose to tell a story in their art, with the conclusion being in the style of a comic or manga. Allow me to take you back to Inkopolis Plaza, back to Octo Valley, with two agents that have... a touch more personality then Agent 3. Heroes of Inkopolis. Before reading, to make it clear that I'm not stealing the artwork, the source of the comic can be found here: http://tamarinfrog.deviantart.com/gallery/55917023/Splatoon-Heroes-of-Inkopolis


Wednesday, 1 June 2016

IDW Transformers; Last Stand of the Wreckers: How to make Hell on Earth look like a Paradise

"War, is hell"

On one corner you have the honor bound, live to protect Autobots. But what happens when you need something stronger, when you need a looser, glass cannon? That's when you call in The Wreckers. The bots who you send in when the mission is suicidal, who go in guns blazing, and just because you walked off their ship doesn't mean you're walking back on. "Sometimes in teh Wreckers, your first day is your last". Or to put it more bluntly, they are the Autobot equivalent of the Expendibles. So let's take a look at one of their missions. In terms of continuity, this is post Autocracy, but long before Combiner Wars.

Autobot outposts all over the galaxy have been falling to Decepticon forces, with one in particular located on Garrus-9, a prison complex designed to house war criminals run by Fortress Maximus (not the titan), is taken over by a loose cannon, one that even Megatron fears (or so we're told), Overlord. One of the three "Phase six" (for another arc review) decepticons, normally sent in to destroy what's left of a planet and its resistance. Autobot and Decepticon alike fear him because while many kill in the names of their leaders. Overlord can be best described as a sadist, the pain, fear and suffering of others pleasures him. He now runs the prison. With everyone there killing each other either for sport, or survival, in a more primal sort of way. The mission: Break into "G-9", save any autobot survivors and Aequitas, a super computer that serves as a judge and jury for the prison, and get out. Simple enough, right? Well, I won't say how the story ends.
Oh don't worry, I'll come back to this girl later

The simple plot though leads to some terrifying visuals. The bright colour pallete makes all the darker moments stronger, its actually so good that I'd love to see this animated. It's practically begging for an animated form. I also love the contrast of the veteran Wreckers like Kup, Springer, and Impactor to the new recruits like Ironfist, Guzzle and Rotorstorm. It further highlights the strains of war, especially when you're on a team constantly getting fresh parts because recruits keep dying on these suicidal missions.

Kinda heavy, but while I do recomend this arc, it is pretty dark. And considering the other arcs reviewed recently, I think we need to get something lighter covered for next month. In the meantime, I feel like talking about Doctor Strange on Friday, anyone care to listen?

Sunday, 15 May 2016

Avengers vs X-Men: So tempting to do a Birds of Prey joke

Not the original plan, but being honest, I couldn't find ways to word it, so I picked another arc, this one, with thankfully better sucsess. So, what could bring the two biggest teams in the Marvel Universe to go against each other? Well seeing as this will probably not be the last hero v hero comic covered, let's find out. I should note, I'm only covering the direct plot of the arc, not before it, and not after it.

The Phoenix force, a power unlike anything you'll find in the MCU (for legal reasons). Its an entity of pure destruction, and its returning to earth, to merge with a girl called Hope Summers, the mutant messiah. The Avengers try to put her into protective custody, but the X-men, refuse. Using a portion of the Phoenix Force, hope flees from the battle, causing the two teams to try and find her. Hope wants to use the Phoenix to reignite the Mutant kind, and trusts Wolverine to, if need be, kill her should she not control it. Before the Phoenix can fully bond with Hope, Iron Man and Giant Man fire a device to try and stop it, but only splinters it, making it bond with Cyclops, Emma Frost, Neymor, Colossus, and Magik (hope I'm spelling some of those right). After defeating the Avengers, the Phoenix five, as they are now going by, are reshaping the planet to their desire, providing free energy, food and water to everyone, all really good things, but because their powers are going unchecked, they need to be stopped. After the first part of their plan, to rescue Hope, barely succeeds, many battles take place, eventually leading to them defeating Neymor, but having his portion of the power return to the other four, making them more powerful.

The rest of the main story is basically that, leading to Cyclops becoming the Dark Phoenix, with all the pieces, killing Professor Xavier, but eventually losing to Hope and the Scarlet Witch. While I can say that this is more then what I was able to do for the Dark Phoenix saga, everything else aside from the visuals and the situation is pretty meh overall. It was more style of the situation, over substance. Might it be because of my lack of time dedicated to it, to get the review, maybe, I hope not though.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

The Dark Knight Returns

One final jab at Dawn of Justice, as this the last DC thing I'm doing for a while. It should come as no surprise that a part of the inspiration for Dawn of Justice is The Dark Knight Returns, and while I'm not reviewing the comic, I do want to review the animated movies. And yes, I said movies. There are two parts to this. So let's just go in order

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Combiner Wars: Peace is but a brittle thing for them

Encase it might not be obvious, I have no intention on doing arcs in the order they were released, simply being because of how old some arcs are. I'd rather bounce between old and new arcs, as to me, it would be more interesting, and may shine a new light on older arcs. For now, we go back to Cybertron, and while there are many arcs between Autocracy and Combiner Wars I want to talk about, such as Dark Cybertron, Last Stand of the Wreckers and All Hail Megatron, let's see what the toy line has been up to lately, the Combiner Wars.

Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Deadpool Killogy: Some want to see the world burn, others bathe in the world's blood

So with the Deadpool movie coming out this month, I thought it would be a good idea to look at a Deadpool arc, to get an idea of the character. Or in this case, what happens when the character breaks. Care to see your beloved and loathed characters, both in the Marvel comics and out of it? Well, this is the arc for you, the Deadpool killogy. Though to be warned, as the books themselves say, THIS IS NOT FOR YOUNG KIDS.

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Worlds Collide: What happens when you mix the Blue Blur with the Blue Bomber?

This is something I get the feeling was being worked on while Archie was getting the rights to do the comics. Think about it, you're going for the rights of two of gaming's most iconic characters (that isn't named Mario), one of whom holds the record for longest running comic series based on a video game. Why wouldn't you bring the two together? Because they did, we get Worlds Collide, so lets see how this goes, shall we?

Thursday, 31 December 2015

The 2015 summary and what's to come in 2016

As I write this on the last Monday of 2015, a nice breeze and a warm sun entering my room, I have to say, there's not a lot to talk about with this in terms of this year, unlike last year, there wasn't a lot that wasn't addressed earlier on. But at the same time, still a lot of exciting things to say. So gather round, as we cast of 2015, and talk about what's in store for 2016.

In terms of content, it was pretty solid. The Digimon Marathon had to be cut short, and the review of Batman Arkham Origins is still far away as I still don't have a copy, but I do believe enough has come out to supliment that, for the time being. We got all the episodes of Digimon up to the start of Digimon Fusion Season 2, a series I've honestly stopped following due to time. The review of almost the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe took up all of May, that was fun to work on until Twitter trolls started to latch their claws into what little free time I had post Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The funny thing is that they're still trying that pathetic "gag", I'm not even angry any more, I find the idea of them still trying is hilarious seven months after. The rest of the year was more smaller things like the week of opening impressions more because of burn out, and preparation for what's coming up. Not only has this site broken 200 posts with the release of the Undertale review, but recently the site has broken 25,000, with the Pokemon Zeta and Onicron (Omnicron is still a cooler name) and Digimon Adventure 02 breaking over 1,000 views on their own. Considering the site isn't even two years old, and yes to many those may not seem great, but to me that's amazing, and it's what keeps driving me to write more content, especially when this time last year we just broke 4,000. So to all who have been following this site in some form, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. That's probably going to become a reoccurring line as more milestones break, but it'll continue to be true.

If there's something specific you want to know about what has come out, ask me in either my Ask.fm, Twitter, Facebook, Retrospring (Which is something I really need to remember to check because I don't get email notifications on it) or any other way to get in contact with me, all the sites linked to this are on the side in the same place. I know this year wasn't very interesting in terms of back story, but there wasn't anything like last year that I didn't address in other posts. Before going into the planned reviews and impressions next year, a few changes are coming to the site itself and how it's managed.

  • A name change will be happening shortly after this post goes live, including a change to the web address. With Marissa now writing for the site, I personally don't feel comfortable keeping the name as it feels like I'm writing her content, which some people may think if they don't notice the "keybug55's reviews:" or the fact that she tags her posts with "keybug55" and "marissa", which I'll be going through my posts and adding "blaster" and "liam" to mine when I get some free time, and you'll see why. The new name is Mediaholics.
  • More of a focus will be put on my Patreon. I do want to start doing this with more of a focus but that requires the site having a budget. Sadly the world doesn't work for free. Now while I'm not going to be barring core content behind a unbroken paywall. What I will be doing is giving Patreon supporters access to my video content a week early when applicable (this doesn't really work for E3 and similar topics, but will be used for Let's Plays and other videos), will get to decide what gets to be covered every now and then, akin to the strawpolls for the Comic arc reviews, but not as limiting and will get to see my notes and other behind the scenes documentation. I'm also going to be doing other Patreon supporters exclusive content when I have the resources to do it.
  • The site is going to become a more general content site, with videos from mine and maybe keybug's channels (depending on how things go), including lets plays along with the reviews site and the projects site to be merged.
  • More video content is on the way. For the time being I will be putting Earthbound on more of a hiatus just due to time, but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky will be returning very soon.
  • First Impressions are going to become videos when possible. E3 conference summaries will probably stay as text, but Pre and Post E3 will return as videos, and impressions of trailers will be videos as well.
  • No more comic arc polls for a while, as most of them didn't get a lot of votes, which defeats the purpose of a poll. However this does mean that arcs like Civil War and the Phoenix Saga will be covered in 2016.

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Megatron's Origins and Autocracy: Because you can't have one without the other

Throughout all of the generations I've seen of Transformers, is it sad to say that I only recall a single dedicated origin story for Megatron? Not to mention, how many Transformers fans who read this can tell me, without looking up a wiki who Orion Pax is? Yeah, you'd think that the two main characters of the series would get dedicated origin stories often, if at all. Well, we have 12 comics that give dedicated origin stories for the two, along with the Autobots and the Decepticons. They won the poll, so its time to look at the two IDW Transformers arcs: Megatron's Origins and Autocracy.

Disclaimer: I have not seen and/or read every single iteration of Transformers. The only time I recall seeing a origin story for Megatron was Transformers Prime and the only two times outside of this series of comics I've seen Optimus Prime referred to as Orion Pax was an episode of Generation 1 and late season 1-early season 2 of Transformers Prime.

Wednesday, 2 September 2015

Nightmare Rarity arc: Would this be considered a downgrade for them?

The first villain introduced in the current generation of My Little Pony was a enemy called Nightmare Moon, a "hero turned villain because of having to live in the shadows of [insert character connection here]", in this case, it was Luna living in the (not so subtle) shadows of her sister, Celestia. I'm not going to retell the plot of the pilot, if you're curious, look it up for yourself. The reason I mention this is because this arc asks "What if "Nightmare Moon" survived?", let's see how this way to tie in a animation change to the plot works, Nightmare Rarity, and remember, you voted for this: http://strawpoll.me/5105730/r

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

Blackest Night arc: "What's this, something to do with zombies that's... ORIGINAL?"

This took longer then what I was expecting, and for that I apologize. This was intended to go up early April, right after the Digimon Marathon, however as you can see, that didn't happen. But, I do keep my word, so here we are, the Blackest Night arc, the first ever Comic book review on this site.

For those who either don't remember, or haven't seen the post covering it, let me explain how these reviews are going to work, at least, how I'll handle them (which has been updated anyway, so...). Due to many comic book stories and characters lasting many decades, it would be almost impossible for me to review entire comic series and still keep a weekly content schedule, especially when you deal with characters that have been around since World War II and before. As such, this will be handled in arcs, arcs that you get to decide. At the end of almost every review, with the exception being this opening period, I'll be putting up a strawpoll that has (at time of writing) 4 arcs, one from Detective Comic (DC), one from Marvel Comics, one from Archie Comics, and one from IDW publishing. These arcs will be picked from any arc that you send me as a request or, if necessary due to how rarely I get requests, are added in by me in order to fill polls. Anyone is able to send me arc requests, even from other publishers (the only reason why its four is because those are the four I know of). Each poll will last until the next Comic review, which I'm hoping to make a monthly occurrence.

With all that out of the way, time to look at Blackest Night.

Monday, 4 May 2015

M.M.M: Hulk... NOT THE POODLE

This is pretty much going to be a month of M's. All the movies have the M rating to them, but for right now, M means Marvel. Now that Avengers: Age of Ultron is upon us, its time to see just how the Marvel's Cinematic Universe started out. We're going to be looking at the first three phases of the MCU in what I call, the Marvel Movie Marathon, or M.M.M for short. Now before I begin, I will not be covering Guardians of the Galaxy in this marathon, I'll save it for when I review Phase 3 and 4. Also, unlike what was said in the last review, as it was changed after that review was recorded, I won't be covering Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D here either, I want to dedicate more time to it then what I have at the moment.

Now, the ones paying attention would noticed I wrote "first three phases", but referred to Phase 3 and 4 separately. The reason: unofficially, there's a phase 0. I'll get to why later, but for now, time to review the, unofficially, first film in the MCU: Hulk.

Thursday, 4 December 2014

What does 2015 have in store for Blaster's Reviews and Blaster's Projects

Before I begin, thanks for the 1000 page views, I know I don't update this site often, but thats just because I don't have anything to talk about. But even still, thank you, it means alot to see people reading my content on both sites.

With 2015 almost upon us, I think it might be time to talk about some upcoming plans for Blaster's Reviews and Blaster's Projects (though not in as much detail)


For Blaster's Reviews, with some miscellaneous reviews scattered between, there are some marathons planned for the first half of the year:
  1. During January, I'll be reviewing 4 Direct to DVD films to which the franchise they're based on has a spot in my heart. BIONICLE: Mask of Light, Legends of Metru Nui, Web of Shadows and The Legend Reborn.
  2. To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the two sites, the Digimon Anime will be reviewed including the films. Do note that most of them will be using the English Dubs.
  3. To coincide with the launch of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Marvel movieverse (not including Guardians of the Galaxy at this time) along with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will be reviewed.
  4. During July, I will once again be tackling E3, which may mean that there will be a lot of Impressions occupying the space after.
 On top of that, two new review types will be opened up during the course of the year

  1. The Retake Reviews: If I or another reader thinks that one of the previous reviews could have been better, I will begin rewriting them and posting a brand new review of them. Imagine it as a sort of "Then and Now" kind of post.
  2. Comic book reviews: I've always been curious about Comic books and Blaster's Reviews has given me a excuse to loo into them. These reviews will be reviews of spesific arcs and individual issues, not comic series. For those who don't know, a comic arc is a small "mini story" in a series of comic books where the story flows directly from one comic to another. Two examples of this are "Blackest Night" from the Green Lantern comics (though it is a cross over) and "Genesis" from one of the two comic book series I do follow, the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. These reviews will be dependent on requests and suggestions so feel free to make requests (I don't ignore everyone except the Patreon supporters, you can talk to me, I don't bite) as to what arcs you'd like to see a review of (just give me some basic info like name of the arc, publishers and what series its from).
As for Blaster's Projects, I unfortunately don't have much to say. But what I do have to say is this:
  1. How to think like a Game Designer isn't dead and more posts on that will appear, I'm just struggling to find a topic, so feel free to make suggestions.
  2. Turnabout Smash: The Project itself is currently halted due to lack of progress on the production for the Prologue and writer's block for Chapter 1 (I know how I want to end it, just not how to get to it). I have plans for Turnabout Smash so that you can still see a form of the project but I am still looking for writers to work with in order to see this project complete. More news on that plan later.
  3. Super Smash Brothers: Fan Disagreement: I have nothing to say about this because SSBFD has, to me at least, become Turnabout Smash. I used SSBFD as a base so to me, the two projects are the same.

That's a little taste of what's to come next year, but there is more then that coming. As I said during the comic book discussing, seeing as it applies for all material, I'm open to requests and feedback as you're the ones motivating me to keep writing, to keep improving. Thanks for the support, and enjoy the rest of the year. Tomorrow and Saturday will be finishing off the Week of Smash and then I'm finishing off the MLP reviews with a review of Rainbow Rocks, and my built up Top 20 MLP songs list.