CITY OF HEROES HITS BACK AT MARVEL
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15:19 &quot;The complaint is meritless.&quot; As retorts go, Cryptic Studios&#39; response to comic book giant Marvel Enterprises hits with the power of an Incredible Hulk ( er, better insert a TM here - Ed) punch.
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Tycho:  We never sit down with the firm intention of making another Bioshock comic - indeed, we intend the opposite - but somehow Bioshock comics continue to be written.  One day, science will pierce these mysteries.  Until then, you'll simply have to endure more strips regarding interactive storytelling's electronic opus.  My recovery from this weekend's rigors would be quite accelerated if I were not up until two or more every night, which is to say morning, hacking and slashing my way through the new releases like some malarial jungle guide.  I put Bioshock to bed last night, and theoretically this should be cause for joy, but I suppose it's like finishing a pie.  There is a whiff of accomplishment, semisweet - but the pie is gone.  Without pause, I slapped the input stud on the video switcher before the final cinema faded to black.  Hurling the gamepad into a knitting basket, I dug deep into the faultlines of the couch, producing a wiimote/nunchuk pair.  I've now played enough of Metroid Prime 3 to know that they've washed the filth of Red Steel completely from the system.  For awhile, I was doing that thing we sometimes do, playing until "the next savepoint," which so frequently becomes "until the savepoint after that," only to meld seamlessly into "until I can no longer see."  They've been spinning the tumbler at Retro for awhile on this one, trying to define first person on Nintendo's weird little chimera, and they've drilled down with enough diligence to find it.  No doubt some measure of the enthusiasm directed toward the game is due to the fact that people are actually using their Wii again, but that shouldn't diminish what they've done.    People have seen Corruption for a couple years, now, builds that bubbled up at different press events, and it's been slightly different each time.  I think they've moved some of the interactions since I last played it - things that were mapped to the nunchuck's gyro before are now handled by the wiimote's pointing device, and I understand why.  Gestures are a very immersive, intuitive means of interaction, but when they fail (or when they fail to express us correctly) they are Goddamned infuriating.  In a case when your hand is actually "present" in the simulation - such as when your left hand is pulling, then twisting, then pushing forward - those motions need to be as authentic as possible.  They must have chosen the perfect translation of the pointing device over the more "correct" left hand interaction.  It creates situations where you are using a different hand than your character, but because the motion is really one to one it still feels pretty good.    That's the long way of saying what you could learn in five minutes, sitting in front of it.  This entire exercise has only stoked my ardor.  It is my intention to begin playing this game at ten, and continue doing so until light begins to creep under the curtains.
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DC Comics tries to reach what it sees as underserved readers.
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Tycho:  We have done things in the past which were not "for" you, or anybody else for that matter.  That isn't what's goin' on now.  What's going on now is we are shoveling dense chunks of fanservice into the site's iron belly, and increased fervor in that chamber makes each comic bend and groan to please you.
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Marvel Enterprises, IP guardian of The Hulk and untold other fictional freaks, is suing the creators of the hot online game "City of Heroes," claiming that characters in the game are virtually identical to Marvel characters. [Missing Links]
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Not exactly going out  with a whimper, &quot;X-Men: The Last Stand,&quot; the closing  installment of the commercially and critically successful  Marvel movie franchise, still fails to generate the satisfying  bang created by the first and, particularly, the second  edition.
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Tycho:  I really must stress to online PlayStation 3 partisans the extent to which they were not at E3.  Those of you playing "the home game" might have seen a trailer or two and come away with the idea that with grace and pride your grey altar stood high over conquered foes.  Ain't the case.
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Marvel Enterprises Inc. is suing two firms behind a computer superhero role-playing game it claims allows players to make virtual characters that are too similar to "The Hulk," "X-Men" and other heroes in the comic book company's stable.
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Of the countless  promotional opportunities the cast of &quot;Spider-Man 3&quot; engaged  in, none was quite like the one they did for a new Web site, No  Good TV .
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The lawsuit claims South Korea-based NCSoft and San Jose-based Cryptic Studios violated Marvel&#39;s trademark characters in their game City of Heroes.
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More comic-book heroes are showing up on the big screen, and the trend isn't going to wane anytime soon. By Jason Silverman.
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Tycho:  In a conference call earlier this week about the Activision/Blizzard/Merger/thing, Activision CEO Robert Kotick dropped the quote from the first panel of the strip completely without irony.  No doubt a phrase like that is "hot talk" for the financial set, but when they're speaking within earshot of the community, they might want to be more choosy.
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MySpace Comic Books, the comics corner of this online social network, and Meltdown Comics, a store in Los Angeles, have teamed up to commemorate the end of âY: The Last Man,â the comic book series created by Brian K. Vaughan, above, and Pia Guerra. The event, âY: The Last Party,â will be held on Friday, Feb. 8, and will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The organization, founded in 1986, is dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comic book business. Of late the defense fund has been involved in the case of Gordon Lee, a comic book retailer in Rome, Ga., who has found himself in court over the distribution of obscene material to a minor. The material in question depicted Picasso in the nude. Mr. Vaughan, who is also a writer on ABCâs âLost,â is a firm believer in the defense fund. âItâs obviously a completely different situation from the writersâ strike, but, similarly, itâs creators taking care of their community, which I always support,â he said in a telephone interview. The $100 V.I.P. tickets have sold out, but a limited number of $25 tickets will be available the day of the event. More information:www.myspace.com/cbldf.
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Marvel's Fantastic Four sees its release date moved -- and I'm not happy.
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Gabe: I just have some random stuff to share here.Pokemon League night is next Tuesday at the Comic Stop. Matches start at six pm, but you can show up a little early if you'd like to trade cards. As always new players are welcome, just bring a starter deck. It's also a good idea to register at Go-Pokemon.com and bring your POP ID. A reader wrote in today to tell me that he was doing the New York Times crossword puzzle for January 30th and noticed this clue for 12 down:  "Tycho's pal in the webcomic 'Penny Arcade' (4 letters)." That's totally awesome. I'm sure the Force Unleashed will be fine. The time period around the original trilogy is just getting so crowded. Now Vader has a secret apprentice? I mean, it makes sense canonically to me. The Emperor had Mara Jade out there doing his dirty work. It's not unreasonable to think Vader had a similar arrangement. Also the very nature of Sith rule makes covering your ass a necessity. The hook for the game is fine and I don't mind the 3rd person action stuff. There are a few games I'd much rather see them make though. The fact that they have not made a sequel to Republic Commando is fucking criminal. That's not a joke either. I mean that someone over there should be put in jail for the rest of their life. RepCom was an incredible squad based shooter, and unlike most games in that genre it was packed with awesome characters. This games deserves a next gen sequel. The other game that needs a next gen installment is Tie Fighter. Seriously that game came out in 1994 and it's one of the best space shooters ever. And for fucks sake stop setting things during the movies. There's nearly sixty years worth of incredible content (minus the dark nest series) extending out past Return of the Jedi. You don't have to keep trying to cram stories into the same 20 year period. They're milking so much content out of that period that eventually we'll be playing a game as Luke where the goal is to repair vaporators on the south ridge. Hurry up you've only got 'till mid day!Rez is available on Xbox Live now. It's one of the best games ever made.   The most popular piece of clothing we've ever made, AKA The Black Mantle is back in stock. It's joined by its polar opposite, the Luminous Vestments. I have a feeling both will be sold out before I finish typing this.   -Gabe out
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The Motion Picture Association of America has given Team America: World Police an R rating for &quot;graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets.
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- Marvel Entertainment Inc.  reported lower profit for the fourth quarter, as contributions fell from its domestic licensing and Spider-Man merchandising joint venture.