Kostisfire

B-but I w-want Mo-Mortal Kombat... Or MGS... I guess we'll find out in a short while now.

Thanks man, I appreciate it, truly. I also hope things will be better, but, honestly, they won't. At least here. I'm just trying to leave before either things explode, or get even worse. And it's pretty much a given one of the two will happen, eventually. I just need to get done with this "Physics" Uni. It's awful, teaches me nothing I'll use and the syllabus is both huge and disjointed, but I need it for a good Post-Grad.

Well, my New Year wasn't that. I got bronxytis on the 25th when I went to see Rogue One, and then I got laryngitis and faryngitis on the 27th from my sick uncles and aunts, and I've been sick since. I'm not entirely well still, but I have to leave because I have a single Lab Class that the assholes at my Uni postponed, and if I don't attend it, I'll loose the semester. And the road from my hometown to where I'm currently staying is six hours, and we have to drive up and down a whole mountain. Meanwhile, it's so snowing so much most roads are closed, and we've had quite a few earthquakes. My grandma also had a stroke and she's in a nursing home now, as nobody can really take care of her (she's better now, so there's that). (Lots of venting, my year was pretty bad by normal standards):

Nothing much, really. James Gunn said on Twitter that he talked to Marvel about an MK movie, and it was hot news for a day. Then D'Onofrio saw that and wanted in to. That, and Alonso said that he'd be getting some extra focus come 2017, alongside DD and the others. I'm a bit behind on my books, as I have to wait a month after release for my subs, but Lemire's run is good. The second arc was just filler, but it's gotten on the right track. It's better than 90% of Marvel's current books anyway.

I was reading the latest Axel-in-Charge and Alonso was saing how going into 2017, we'll see more focus on the street-level characters (DD, Punisher, Misty, MK, etc). Plus, with Defenders, IF and maybe Punisher hitting in 2017, I think some Marvel Knights waves and box-sets would be damn great. My ideas: Classic Marvel Knights 4-Pack: 1) Black Panther (update of the first figure) 2) Daredevil (update of the Yellow suit) 3) Cloak (updated classic costume) 4) Dagger (updated classic costume) It's mostly a mix & match of the various early titles. BP v3 started off as an MK title before being a "normal" book. Daredevil: Yellow was a mini, and Cloak & Dagger were mainstays of the team that appeared in "Marvel Knights" book. Modern Street-Level Marvel Wave: ANAD Daredevil/ NOW! 2.0 Bullseye (there's a new mini coming out now, and he's got a new suit) ANAD Luke Cage/ ANAD Iron Fist (Power Man & Iron Fist costumes) ANAD Misty Knight (she's got a new look over at the Sam Wilson book)/ Ghost Rider (Reyes) NOW! Punisher (back then, he was wearing a Balaclava and looked more "Cal of Duty/Spec Ops"-inspired, so I think it's a good variant)/ Mr. Knight TRU (now that we get just one pack): Ghost Rider (pieces for both Blaze and Ketch)/ NOW! 2.0 Elektra (basically the Netflix suit) or Modern Moon Knight (black & white armor) Also, what with Marvel's 2017 event being HYDRA!Cap related and all, I could see a Cap wave working: ANAD HYDRA!Cap/ Flag-Smasher Diamondback/ ANAD U.S. Agent AmeriCop/ Sin AmeriCop/ "Red Skull" Sin TRU: Cap-Wolf/ Red Guardian

You get the "Smooth Billy Dee" award: It's reserved for only the Smoothest Minimate Customs. Seriously though, great job! Do the recent "news" have anything to do with it, or was it a spur of the moment kinda thing?

Eh, he'll be released at some point. The book is doing good (and is one of the few good titles amongst Marvel's pile of absolute awfulness), he's appearing in more non-CB formats, and Alonso has said that he'll be getting a push in 2017. Besides, considering how easy a Netflix show to market and make would be, it's bound to happen at some point.

Yeah, that was from Avengers Assemble. It was the first of the "Let's make Thanos extremely visible again, to the point of oversaturation" stories after The Avengers flick.

I'm still going with Mortal Kombat as the VG license, but I've got no clue what the film ones are. Still, I'm interested in seeing them at some point.

Bendis is a man past his prime who peaked with Daredevil and Alias, and has been trying to recapture the same lightning in a bottle for years now. But instead of evolving as a writer, he simply follows the same pattern, no matter the character. As for his "ideas", at least as of recent, I disagree. Making the Symbiotes a race of peace-keeping aliens called the Klyntar is a nice idea? Following up on the Stark adoption story while ignoring Arno, only to reveal that his real parents were SHIELD Agents is a fresh concept? Having Doom's reason for going straight be "I was God, and then I got bored, and I like, always looked up on Stark" is a cool twist? They're all bland and uninspired, at least IMO. Hell, don't even mention continuity. Eternity has been in chains, for a long time now, but Da Bendis doesn't care! Eternity is all free at the end of CWII. In a stupid retcon, Howard and Maria adopted Tony as a mask for their genetically engineered alien son. Bendis ignored everything about it, and just made Maria not be able to carry a child. Like, why would you even continue this awful story if you're gonna change it again yourself?! He's also ressurecting Triumph and Torment for God's sake! Why? Why on Earth do that?! But all that pale in comparison to the decompression. He wrote a "Venom Planet" story, where two of the three issues are spent inside the ship, with the symbiote jumping from Guardian to Guardian, ending with the BS retcon. He wrote an Iron Man run in which nothing happened. Literally. Doom shows up, for some reason he still hasn't explained, they take down Masque, Tony dresses up like James Franco and then... that's it. Oh yeah, we got the Invincible Bendis Pet and Doctor Doom: Killing Time Edition books out of it... Not to mention the mischaracterization. He's got Doom spouting lines like "Something Something Clobbering". He's got Thing going around destroying old Latverian vases and works of art, 'cause he's mad. He turned Cynthia Von Doom into a "sexy dominatrix witch". He made Rocket's new catchphrase "Blam! Murdered you!". He turned Star-Lord into a man-child instead of the competent cosmic hero he was. Bendis is a man past his prime who should just take a break and not deviate from street-level stuff. He just can't write anything past "snarky" to save his life these days.

I'm really glad you liked them! I'm also relieved to see that the customs made it all in one piece, and without any paint being chipped off. Have a great New Year!

Like I said, in around 2014 or so, through those AskDC things that DC Direct did, and from various cons, it was kinda implied that the license is held up somewhere else, most likely Mezco with the Mez-Itz. So even if DC wanted to make them, there's still that hurdle. Obviously that has not been confirmed, but all the old DC Direct folks went out the door when the New52 came around, so there's been at least a change in management. We'll see, I guess...

Moon Knight was in WCA. Just sayin'...

Yeah, it's just that I won something in the July giveaway as well, so I figured maybe it's a case of only those who haven't won anything are getting this "last chance" gift. It's mostly because I'll be leaving my place for Christmas, so I'll have to pick which address to give, depending on the shipping day. Again, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, as Pk and all the other fine folks have gone above and beyond with these giveaways. The postage only must have cost a ton. I just get worried in such situations (I'm a rather anxious person).

Not to be an ungrateful little SOB, but weren't the rest of us who didn't win a stocking supposed to get a PM? It's the 18th here, and I did update my WANTS/HAVES list. Not trying to sound like an @$$h0le (Lord knows you've all gone above and beyond for this community, giving away free prizes), I'm just curious.

The selection ain't bad, but I rarely see folks clamor for newer cotumes, hence why I think going with ANAD looks for all the major players and not doing redos of Spider-Gwen might've been better. The average consumer is attracted because they're all big names, and the older collector is not forced to hunt down that one-per-case Silk. Still, Spider-Gwen at a second wave ain't a bad thing either, same with Miles. And the rest of the choices make sense (Wolverine, Deadpool, Venom, etc). As for me, even if I don't like the current crop of titles that much, I love the costumes, so I'm always up for modern outfits and whatnot. Not that the classics are bad, but in contrast with most, I'm a fan of the "ultra-realistic/millitaristic" aspects of the modern redesigns.

Eh, she's a major MCU player, the costume is nice, and her book is one of thefew that hasn't been cancelled (it will be soon though, sales have been under the 20k mark). Maybe you could've put Black Widow in her place, as she's got a new look as well.

I'd put him in a Modern GotG Wave (how we still don't have CB Guardians is crazy). Besides, I really like the new SW costume:

They're totally seperate licenses, but dunno. We got Gotham mates, now we're probably getting Watchmen mates. And from past AskDSTs and AskDCs (back in, dunno, 2013 or so, you could ask them questions), it was sorta implied that it wasn't so much that they weren't interested in DC minimates, it's just that this particular license was held up by another company (probably Mezco's Mez-Itz). Dunno, it isn't as unlikely as it was a few years back. I wouldn't hold my breath or anything, but...

Well, on one hand I was hoping for new characters, and was pretty angry at the selection when it was first announced, but I kinda see the point. Personally, I wouldn't have gone with another Miles, Gwen, OMl and the like, but instead, I would've bypassed the rare figs (if your goal is to appeal to the average consumer, why put an exclusive and hard to find character in there) and gone with: -Chulk (ANAD Hulk) -Steve Rogers (ANAD/NOW! Captain America) -Iron Man (ANAD) -Spider-Man (ANAD) -Doctor Strange (ANAD) -Black Panther (ANAD) -Scarlet Witch (ANAD) -Wolverine (X-23 ANAD) That way, you attract the kids with flashy costumes of the main names, and the more hardcores fans aren't really missing on anything, because they're just costume changes.

Congrats to the winners, and many thanks to everyone involved in this year's numerous giveaways! Happy Holidays!

Personally speaking, I don't hate Cho. He had a niche, and he never was the uber-smartest. He was a smart kid in the vein of Parker that did cool things alongside Hercules. He was a good sport. But the new crop truly is awful. Miss America Chavez is da absolute bezt when it comes to cosmic stuff, and can shut down anybody yo! The new Wasp is the super-genius daughter of Hank Pym that's like, a super-super-genius! Riri like, created a better armor than the Mark I in her garage. At age 15! And Tony was so impressed, he made her his protegee! After meeting her for, like, 5 minutes, or so? And then he dragged her into a war with actual super-people 'cause reasons? And last but not least, there's Moon Girl, who, for the past 4 months, has been advertising that she's the smartest person on earth, and that your old favourites can eat their hearts out! That's in the solicits, that's how they sell the book, that's what's in the book. It's just her saying she's da smartest, and other people coming in and saying "you're da smartest" and then the solicit for the next issue saying "she's da smartest". And the thing is, it's just a case of one writer trying to one up the other. Back in the day, Stark had to make new suits every few months with a new gimmick to be considered a genius. Reed had to discover a new dimension. And all of them were grown ass men with resources and experience. Now, they solve intedimensional equations on the 6th plane of Hell, while having a mental fight with an imp from the 7th borderland, which will help them create an armor that will survive the death of the Omniverse (?!?!?). And for kids to keep up, now they have to be able to breach into other realities and create AIs at their garages before they go to college. So this creates an endless cycle of "my dad's meaner than yours", which destroys storytelling. Back in the day, you'd open a book, and you'd get a story that'd be self-contained, would feature a core cast and would give equal focus to the characters and the action. Now, it's just a way for Marvel to launch their new MCU movie while proving how progressive they are. They launched "Occupy Avengers" for God's sake! Which is essentially a "reprint" of Green Lantern/Green Arrow. The Waid Avengers vol was filled to the brim with bystanders going "y'all ain't m' Av'ng'rs" and Sam and Jane going "yeah, well you're a racist crybaby". The fact that they printed an issue, where Laura AKA X-23 talks to Doctor Strange about guys on the internet complaining about her being Wolverine (wink meta wink wink XDDD ya get it?!!1!!), is the moment Marvel Comics became nothing more than an ad company. Their strategy is: Mega-Event -> Relaunch -> Small-Event -> Line-Wide-Event/Mega-Event -> Character-Event -> Relaunch. Rise and repeat...

Yeah, it's a bit of a weird situation. "Ned Leeds" is just... Ganke. Why go through the effort of swapping the names? As for Flash, the guy who plays him, Revolori, was great in TGBH, but dunno, when I look at him, I don't see "Flash". From what I gather, he's just going to be an arrogant little prick who challenges Peter on an intellectual level and... that's just not Flash. The easiest thing would've been to cast a regular Jock Flash, have Ned Leeds be the intellectual rival (have Revolori play the role), replace Ganke/Ned Leeds with Harry Osborn, and you're set. Have one movie in High School, and then move to College, with MJ, Gwen and the like. Staying in HS is pointless. Though I don't think they'll kill him off after the trilogy. RDJ, Evans and the like will retire by that time, so they need a new guy to keep making tentpole films. Maybe after 6 films they'll introduce Miles, but it's just bonkers to devote a whole trilogy in HS, and then probably mash together College and Post-College in three films. This is "The Hobbit" all over again. If we get the Symbiote-Saga while he's in HS, it'll surely blow. I'm just not very confident in this plan.

I went and checked that. So they have an Asian-American Ned Leeds that acts and looks like Ganke, but a Caucasian as Jason Ganke that looks like... nodoby worth noting. And they also have a scrawny Flash who's an "intellectual rival". I've got to say, I ain't liking this casting. They're stealing stuff from Miles' supporting cast, while also making Peter's pretty unrecognizable. I mean, why not just go with the usuals? Betty Brant, Jonah, Liz Allen (at least she's in there), Harry Osborn, Jock Flash and the like? Flash has a great character arc that I don't think we'll ever get with this route they're taking. It's not the race part that breaks it, it's the physique and the way he's written. Even then, I can kinda get over the weird casting, but three movies of high school I think will be overkill.