As Hilden would say, “Must be a movie coming out!”. The following week after whichever movie game he had mentioned was released would be filled with confusion, sadness, anger, and disdain. Every time we get our hopes up that maybe this game would be the game to finally buck the trend, and nearly every time we get another rushed hack job full of bugs to shatter our dreams of playing something decent with far cooler characters then 90% of games out there. These games are not cursed, but rather simply the result of what happens when a publisher gives whatever B team they can pull out of Croatia ten months to piece together whatever they can. When you do that, odds are you’re gonna have a hunk of poo sitting on store shelves. If you give a good developer the time and let them swing for the fences, then games like Escape From Butcher Bay become a more common occurrence.

So there isn’t a curse, but why do shit movie games keep coming out? The same reason Sonic games are still terrible: If Sega sells millions upon millions of copies of whichever raping of my childhood they decided to release this month, why would they ever spend the money to make sure it was good? Until people stop buying shitty movie games, there will always be shitty movie games. The latest well intended effort to do a franchise justice comes to us from the kings of whoring franchises: Activision. So it is all the more stranger that they are the ones to give Raven Software, one of their finest developers, the time and resources needed to have a good chance at actually making X-Men Origins: Wolverine into a decent game.
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SPOILERS…..obviously.

Walking Dead #60

Written by: Robert Kirkman

Art by: Charlie Adlard

The BIG 6-0. 60 is most notably the time in your life when you start to lose your hearing, and your eyes start getting worse, along with your driving skills, and you go hobble your way into your huge, boat sized Cadillac and break off the odometer at 25 in a 45 mph zone while heading to your local Walgreens and buy some of those huge, wrap around glasses that look like some kind of virtual reality visor. Yeah, its those years when retirement homes scare you, along with all that new fangled technology, and don’t even talk about those young punks with their “raps” and “skateboards”. But you know what isn’t getting old? The Walking Dead.

60 issues in, Robert Kirkman hopes to bring back the original antagonist of the series: zombies. While most of the series has been about the fact that the zombies aren’t the worst thing roaming the land, issue 60 tries to convince us that they are still a contender.

Last issue, we finally caught a glimpse of the “herd” of zombies heading after our intrepid heroes. Rick & Co. could defend against a group of zombies with little to no effort, but a herd comprises of thousands of zombies. Not a walk in the park.

So in this issue, we witness our car-less heroes running from the herd, trying desperately to get back to their loved ones in time to warn them of the incoming danger. While not the most illuminating issue of the series, this issue does help emphasize the immediacy of the undead flock.

I have always said that the issues that deal with the more humanizing aspects of the story are my favorites. Issues where the characters are just sitting around trying to gather some shred of hope while being surrounded and confronted by acts of horrific violence and sanity breaking situations. This issue still brings that to the table. One character in particular gets this in spades.

So all in all, this issue doesn’t reveal a whole lot, but it does hint at the herd arc coming to an end, but not before a little preview at the end of the book. With preview pages with phrases like “”The dead do not stalk” and an accompanying picture of shadowy figures hiding in the trees right above some of the main cast.

Yeah, I don’t really need to tell you about the art and the writing because it is just so good. It’s just a given with this series.
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I missed a comic book weekly review so I’m gonna cram two weeks of reviews into one post. So bear with me.

Wolverine #71

Written by: Mark Millar

Art by: Steve McNiven

I don’t want to jinx this book, but I gotta say that every issue of Millar/McNiven’s “Old Man Logan” arc has been outstanding. I’m hard pressed to find anything that I didn’t like in each issue. If you happen to be not reading this either because you hate Wolverine or don’t know about it, you really should be.

So last ish, we are left with a shot of the geezer-y duos next challenge, a T-Rex with the powers of Venom chasing after them through the desert wasteland. Take that concept out of context and you would laugh and tear this issue up in your hands, but for some odd reason, Millar and McNiven make this work. Awesomely.

So back to the giant Venom-y T=Rex. It’s chasing Wolverine and Hawkeye through the barren desert towards their ultimate goal: reaching a place called New Babylon. Even in the ridiculously cool Spider-mobile, the T-Rex is closing in on them. But just when it seems like the curtains are falling on our adventurers, a familiar face shows up in one of the coolest cameos in this storyline and stops the T-Rex dead in its tracks. The softly spoken savior whisks the team down into a secret hideout that is home to some of Wolverine’s past friends, most namely Emma Frost. This series has always seemed to pride itself on showing us future versions of characters that aren’t really there for anything but nifty cameos. Which brings me to my next point: I LOVE THEM! This issue has one of the best cameos and it just solidfies this series as a really cool interpretation of the Marvel Universe’s future. Much like the city of Hammer Falls in a earlier issue that featured a city based around the location of where fallen Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, fell to Earth. In my opinion, this newest “cameo” trumps that one. It’s so great, that McNiven used two pages to show it.

So by now, you should realize from my tone that the current storyline in Wolverine is worth reading. If single issues aren’t available to you, I’d say that you need to mark down the date that the trade is released. So far, barring some unforseen disaster in the last issue, Wolverine “Old Man Logan” is worth your hard earned penny, even in this shitty, crumbling economy. (more…)

May contain SPOILERS!

The Walking Dead #58

Written by: Robert Kirkman

Art by: Charlie Adlard

If you are reading this on Robotpanic.com, that means several things:

1. Obviously you like comics just by reading this review

2. You like zombies.

3. You may even like zombies IN comics.

Much akin to the legendary amalgamation of peanut butter and chocolate, zombies and comics are becoming two halves of the same whole. And NO ONE mixes both ingredients as well as Robert Kirkman. 5 years into his legendary series, The Walking Dead, Kirkman has yet to let his fans down. I mean legendary series as in the fact that there is a 99.9% chance that when this zombie vs. human survivor, drama/action/thriller tale is completed, it will be regarded as an absolute must read. It will be mentioned in the same breath as Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and Kingdom Come. I am not fucking with you.

If by some absolutely astounding reason that you read comics and ARE NOT reading this, you need to stop buying whatever issue you think you might need and pick up EVERY SINGLE ISSUE OF WALKING DEAD. By issue 1′s end, you will be hooked, or dare I say, you will be zombified? You will not be able to put this series down until you have read every available issue. So that being said, onto this month’s ish.

58 deals with the aftermath of Rick’s explosively violent outburst in issue 57. By viciously lashing back at would be road bandits, he not only saved his own skin, but his son’s, Carl, and the new found “friend”, Abraham. Discussing their various pasts, each is spilling their hearts about what it takes to survive in a world where it may come down to survival of the fittest, even in it’s most cruelest sense. Each man describes the horrors of trying desperately to save their own family, and the terror of coming to realize that they might not be able to. Each reaffirming that they are all in this together, like it or not.

Casting aside differences in pursuit of some kind of escape from the invading horde of zombies, survivors in the Walking Dead have come to realize that the undead outside might not be so terrifying as the living on the inside. Sometimes your dearest friend might just be your worst enemy or vice versa. And this is what is so great about The Walking Dead. Each issue, Kirkman manages to twist your emotions and likewise to the characters. They have been simply put through the wringer over the course of the series. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As depressing as this series is, and by god this issue is definitely one of the most depressing and emotional issues I’ve ever read, the scenes with characters just talking are far better than the ones with pure action. Characters letting loose with heart felt drama really cements this book as one of the finest stories out there. Never before have pencil and ink drawn characters felt so human and lifelike. Each character has their own voice, style and feel to them. Kirkman has a finely crafted work here, and each month it shows. Sure, there is a time when a good zombie murder spree is in order, but it is issues like this that I most look forward to. Characters sitting around and discussing life can be as beautifully chaotic.

I cannot state this anymore clearly. You absolutely MUST be reading this series.
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