When talking with people of a mature age, the consensus of fighting games is that they are too hard and intimidating to play with in multiplayer, or at all. I disagree. Fighting games in multiplayer are like playing a game of chess by tapping a xylophone. The chess game of outwitting your opponent is up to you. I will teach you how to operate the xylophone. Please set aside a hour for study time. This is a strategy guide for learning how to get a couple wins in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

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I cannot recall what prompted me to, but I remember going to the store one day craving a new game for my Dreamcast and I ended up taking a chance on a full-priced, new copy of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. At that time, I was kind of out of the whole fighting game scene – not that I was a hardcore fighting game fan to begin with – but the sheer chaos and fun that resulted from the insanity of the 3-on-3 tag fighting in MVC2 was most likely the catalyst that got me back into enjoying fighting games again.

MVC2 stayed in my regular rotation for so long that it resulted in my Dreamcast being hooked up to my television for way longer than it should have. I remember in my first apartment, my roommate and I would have nightly tournaments with our neighbors and we would play that game into the wee hours of the morning. For the longest time, I anxiously anticipated a sequel. This being Capcom in the middle of their Dreamcast run where it seemed like they published half of the Dreamcast library, I thought it seemed like a sure thing. I just did not expect it to take eleven years.

Eleven years have come and gone, though, and last week I finally got the sequel to one of my all-time favorite fighting games. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is everything I wanted it to be as it brings back the fast and furious 3-on-3 tag fighting we grew up with. Where should I start? How about the roster? Instead of the monstrous 50+ roster we got with the previous game, MVC3 features 36 characters, which is still quite a bit when compared to most other fighters on the market. On paper it looks like Capcom just sliced 20 spots, when in reality a whole lot more cuts were made because of the surprise amount of new characters debuting.

I do have to gripe a little about some characters that got axed; just keep in mind Capcom is already promising DLC characters down the line. With that said, why in the holy hell is Ken not here? It is almost tradition for every Capcom fighter to have both Ken & Ryu, but here we have Ryu & Akuma, and that’s just not the same. Plus, no Servebot? His Hyper-Combo was one of the defining highlights of MVC2. I am also a huge Iceman fan and find his exclusion among the roster to be a big one.
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00:00-Show Intro
04:14-Drunk Dials
08:14-Mailbag
20:45-Discussion Segment: Comic Intervention
52:36-Wine Talk
56:16-Lightning Round
1:16:28-Top PIcks
1:20:49-The Last Shot
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DGR: 02.12.2011

The creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev holds a special place in my heart. Before he went and fucked it all up with the abysmal Secret Invasion storyline, which managed to skew the entire Marvel Universe for a year, Bendis was the man behind the resurgence of one of my all time favorite characters, Daredevil. With the aid of Alex Maleev’s gritty and washed out line work, the world of Hells Kitchen became the playground for one of the most gripping storylines to hit a Marvel character in ages.

When Bendis and Maleev announced they were leaving Daredevil in the hands of a new creative team, I not only mourned their departure but also became really curious as to what they would be doing next. Much to my dismay, it seemed the partnership would be splitting. Bendis, it was announced, was moving to the Avengers to sow the seeds for what would become the Secret Invasion arc. Maleev, it seemed, was simply dropping off the face of the planet, with only a guest shot here and there to satiate my thirst for his fantastic artwork.

Much to my surprise, I got wind a year or so ago that Bendis and Maleev were not split but simply working on a rather ambitious new project to be revealed at a later date. Earlier this year we were finally treated to the fruit of that secret labor in their newest partnership, Spider-Woman. More than just a comic book, this run also attempts to leap into the future of comic books with a motion comic on iTunes. Whether or not it succeeds or not is up to you but I found the results to be well worth the time, if not the cash.
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Sadly, it’s been awhile since any sort of comic thing graced this site and that’s a damn shame. I’m not sure exactly why the Comics/Manga category has been such a wasteland, as we’re reading them all the time. I suspect it has to do with the fact that we’ve been busy with other things.

It time to remedy the situation and I know of no better way than to talk about the latest storyline being crafted by the great and mighty pen of Ed Brubaker in the most recent issues of Captain America. We’ve already said a ton about our admiration and respect for Brubaker’s work. We are all big fans of what he’s brought to the table as far as Captain America goes as well. In all honesty, this may be the greatest run that Cap has ever seen and may ever see. This particular storyline does a great job of demonstrating why that is.

The greatest thrill, for me, in the current run of Captain America is the effortless way that Brubaker has taken the over-the-top aspects of Cap lore and brought them into modern times. All this without making them seem too “out-there” or cheesy. No small feat. Brubaker is once again weaving the legendary Captain America characters into the fabric of our modern day events in his latest storyline called “Two Americas”. In it, Brubaker makes the bold choice of taking on one of the most interesting and vexing stories in our news day; the Tea Party movement.

One of the more interesting characters that Brubaker has resurrected over the years is a forgotten villain simply called 1950′s Cap or Bad Cap. Years after the original Captain America (aka Steve Rodgers) was trapped in ice at the tail end of World War II, a school teacher in the 1950′s underwent plastic surgery and mimicked the Super-Soldier syrum that created the original Cap. While the procedure did create an exact likeness of Steve Rodgers, the process made the new Cap insane. Of course, when Steve Rodgers retuned, the Bad Cap was quickly put down and presumed dead. Thanks to Brubaker’s use of him during the Death of Captain America storyline, Bad Cap is alive and a fully fleshed out antagonist, ready to be used. It is indeed he who is causing all the trouble in this latest story.

Following the events of the Captain America: Reborn storyline, James “Bucky” Barnes continues to wield the costume and shield of Captain America. Word is sent that Bad Cap has resurfaced and become disenchanted with the current state of America. As a result, he has become a leader for a homegrown militia group called the Watchdogs. Rallying members of the Tea Party movement (or Marvels version of it at any rate), Bad Cap creates an army hell bent on sending a message fueled by anger. Of course the message comes attached to a series of devastating bombs that are meant to go off at key government facilities. As Bucky attempts to infiltrate the Watchdog group, he is discovered by Bad Cap and is forced to don his old Bucky costume and work as Bad Caps “sidekick”.

The story is well paced, the characters are, once again, used to great effect and the series of four comics takes what could be horribly cheesy and infuses it with a good mix of drama and action. With another round of absolutely stunning art by Luke Ross, this storyline is both relevant to current day events and another engaging use of the Captain America characters. Brubaker does it once again and I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s also not too late check this book out. Two Americas would be a great story to jump in on if you’ve never checked out the series.

There’s a huge shakeup with the latest Punisher comics from Marvel. It took a couple months for me to finally comprehend the changes and see the final results on the newsstand as to where the Punisher books are standing today. Being a huge fan of Mr. Castle for the better part of the past 15 years, I thought it was my duty to do my best to clear the confusion of the changing in numbering and re-launches of new Punisher series within the past couple of months.

Punisher War Journal – Punisher War Journal was the series that saw Castle interacting mostly with superheroes and villains from the Marvel Universe. It was also the series that saw the Marvel events cross over into such as Civil War and Secret Invasion. Unfortunately, last month saw War Journal’s last issue (#26) released, which featured an interesting one-shot about Rhino stopping the Punisher from assassinating a group from recreating Stilt Man. Matt Fraction wrote the entire run of War Journal, and while I’m not a huge fan of the superhero side of the Marvel Universe, I did like Fraction’s take on how the Punisher crossed over with the likes of Spider-Man, Captain America, Rhino and others.

Punisher: Frank Castle (MAX) – The darker, edgier, explicit content-filled version of the Punisher that featured Frank going to war with gangs and thugs instead of superheroes underwent a name change. Starting with issue #66, the MAX Comics line of The Punisher will now be known as The Punisher: Frank Castle. This line will still be under Marvel’s MAX Comics branding and will still contain the uncensored language and gorier artwork that this line of Punisher comics has been known for. I would recap what happens here, but regrettably I am unjustifiably far behind reading through the MAX series. I own every issue of the MAX line, but am only caught up reading halfway through the Barracuda story arc at issue #33.
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Last week I mentioned that I received an extra comic or two in my bag after a weekly run to my local comic shop. One of those extra comics was Captain America #42 and I commented on how much the series had changed for the better under Ed Brubakers writing hand. In the comment section below the post, our good friend Tyler Durden mentioned that I should really read the earlier stories and that an Omnibus had been put out that cataloged the first 25 issues of the Brubaker Captain America run. While I’m a big comic book fan, the idea of an omnibus seemed like a pricey endeavor and a difficult one to justify. Perusal of Amazon.com confirmed my suspicions with a rather hefty $75.00 price tag.

This last weekend John, Moe and I attended FallCon 2008, a local comic book convention held here in St. Paul, MN. While checking out the various booths, my good friends happened to find the Captain America Omnibus hanging out under a 30% off sign. And you just can’t pass up a deal like that, can you? What I found was one of the greatest collections of comics I’ve read in a long, long time. In one night, I had consumed the entire book and I am simply floored by what Brubaker has done with one of Marvel’s most iconic characters.
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Tyler Durden writes in to tell us about Marvel Trading Cards!

Article By: Tyler Durden 84

I’m not exactly sure when Marvel, or really any comics publisher, decided to start making comic trading cards, but I do know that when I was a kid in school in the 90s they were the shit. I remember spending recess and even class-time secretly wheeling and dealing these cards. My friends and I would make deals multiple times a day and would slowly build up a collection of cards that we could toss in a binder to show off.

These were the days when X-Men the animated show was at its fervent height. I remember X-men the animated series playing on Saturday mornings, back when Saturday mornings would actually show new episodes of cartoons, and awesome ones to boot. I remember that my dad and I would both watch the show. That was some of the best times of my life, just sitting there with my dad and watching X-Men and Spider-man. Not to get all sentimental, but I really miss those days. Ok, sorry for the SOB story, but back to the cards.

Every Saturday, my stock in characters would go up or down based on the cartoons they were in and what they did in them. Wolverine was obviously highly ranked, along with cool villains like Magneto and the Brood. Heroes that saved the day in the end of the show or even had developing stories, all fluctuated during the week at school. This was how we created deals. One week, an average Cyclops card could be worth two minor character cards or one week a Gambit card could be worth three or four. You had to watch the show and read the comics to play the game. You play to win the game. All throughout the school years, trading and buying packs of cards became a hobby for many kids.
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“Yesterday’s Men of Tomorrow—Today!” Thus begins The Twelve, a story by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Chris Weston, and a comic that I feel hasn’t received nearly enough attention. Granted, the premise seems to be a bit overused these days with Marvel 1985 and Avengers/Invaders stealing a bit of thunder from The Twelve. But the twist here is that a group of twelve 1940s superheroes were kidnapped by Nazis and were put in cryonic suspended-animation. Sixty years later (the present), these twelve heroes are found and thrust into today’s modern world. Each of these characters existed in the early Marvel days, when they were known as “Timely Comics”. The story revolves not around their super powers, rather their adjustment to life sixty years later – after everything, and nearly everyone they know is gone forever. It’s this element that makes The Twelve a fascinating read month after month. (more…)

“Made from 100% recycled awesome.”

Thus reads the tag-line for Hasbro’s entry into the vinyl toy arena and, dare I say it, they’re 100% correct. I first got wind of this vinyl toy trend in one my local Japanese toy import shops at my hometown mall. They had a whole stack of these crazy “design-it-yourself” vinyl dolls from a company called Kidrobot (love the name), under the name MUNNY. I guess it’s a bit of a phenomenon, especially among artists who use MUNNY dolls as blank canvases for their own character creations. Check out the MUNNY website for good examples of some of the amazing things people have done with these toys.

While being cool, you can’t find them at your local Wal-Mart or big box retailer of choice. So, enter the toy giant Hasbro. In an attempt to make this new vinyl toy both affordable and mass market, they’ve brought out a new line of figures based on Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Marvel Comics characters. You know me by now. Anything having to do with comics, movies and general geekery has me right away. But you throw in some cool design and a nod to Japanese toy culture and my wallet is immediately open and on its way to empty.
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