nate_studio

Cool idea TM2. Thanks for including my blog - guess I need to take some more photos!

edited your name out of my post so google doesn’t start kicking up that image when you look up your name, no one deserves that fate... I appreciate it! --on topic-- I am now officially on the hunt for these guys - Can't wait for JJ!

Haha. All great to know and better appreciate Hawkeye. As a kid, I liked his purple and blue costume and would play as him in that ridiculously hard SNES Avengers game, but it's good to know more about the character. I think he was also in that 90s Iron Man cartoon, but I really don't remember that well. One of the few things I have read with Clint in it was him going after Osborn. But I think he was Ronin at the time, so I still haven't read any Hawkeye. And while Kurt "Stunt Man Mike" Russell may be too old, let's hope Jeremy Renner can capture Hawkeye's essence. He's definitely the unexpected favorite for me in EMH. PS, did everyone see the official new costumes for season 2? I wonder if anyone else will get a makeover.

I would have loved to see a third season of Spectacular Spider-man. Hey, Miry, I've never read any classic comics with Hawkeye in it (I know, shame on me). Is his EMH personality similar to his 616 personality? Or is that more of a modern thing? Didn't Bendis start using him as his 'voice' in Avengers (or whichever Avengers title he was used in)?

S1:E16 - Widow's Sting Hawkeye's still out to take down the Black Widow, and he's going to shake down every HYDRA agent on the planet to do it. So much happens in this episode, but the main plot is that Hawkeye is still trying to capture Black Widow. He tries to get SHEILD and the Avengers to help him, but when they tell him it's a bad idea, he decides to do it alone. Cap and Panther want to help and SHEILD sends Mockingbird along to basically send them on a wild goose chase. Our heroes realize this early on and persuade her to actually help them instead of just pretending to. So in what should be a pretty easy plan -- find Strucker and that treacherous Widow at a HYDRA base -- turns out to be much more complicated. First off, Widow might not actually be a traitor. Other shockers include AIM realizing the weapon they've been developing for HYDRA actually works and finally that HYDRA has been infiltrated by Skrulls. CRAZY! We get a lot of awesome Hawkeye moments in this episode. The guy who seems like a one-gimmick hero is actually really cool and can still hold up in a fight without his bow and arrows (though he loses both hand-to-hand fights). They put a lot of work in to giving him a great character and he's really one of my favorites on the team. As always, we're treated to some really cool fight scenes. The one at the end really turns up a notch when Cap and Panther come crashing through the ceiling. I'm always impressed with how much this show is able to cram in to every episode without losing it's pacing - character development, multiple fight scenes, and several intersecting plots - it's crazy that each episode is only 20 minutes long. Some other side notes... Hawkeye's mask really doesn't make sense. I get what they're going for, but they keep changing how it actually exists on his head, most notably by his ears. I wish they would figure this out and stay consistant. We're treated to another shot of Black Widow walking away from camera in detail. I'm really left unsure about Mockingbird- what are her abilities? How does that stick of hers function? Why the codename "Mockingbird"? Did Cap's voice get deeper? I feel like from this episode on his voice is a little more exaggerated to sound overly heroic. The downside (for me, anyway) is he no longer sounds like a 18-20 year old like he should be. I mean he would be younger, right? A guy who just joined the army a few years ago shouldn't be too old. That said, I guess in traditional comic books he never seems younger on the scale. I don't know. Favorite moment: MODOC not being able to reach that arrow on his forehead.

I'm also in the camp that hates the bigger powerhouse chest. The original powerhouse piece took me some time to warm up to, but I loved it once the second version with the 'flaps' came out. It still bothers me that my choices for Beast (one of my favorite characters) are either skinny or terrible-torso. However, I don't really mind the mega chest piece or most sculpted pieces. I even like Beast's long arms, claw hands and toe feet. I'm excited about Venom's new arms... but I'm not sure about the head. PS- Is Brock still Anti-Venom these days? Could they really not think of a better name for him? I didn't really mind the concept behind Anti-Venom, but the name is just awful.

It helps that I'll be getting some of wave 43 and some of MvC3 wave 2 while I wait for TRU Daredevil. Well, that and the fact that TRU DD comes with Kingpin instead of a character I don't really care for.

"What’s been announced so far may pretty much cover the Avengers for a while, or at least Hawkeye." Does that mean we won't be getting a new classic costume Hawkeye? I was really hoping one would be coming out this summer since I missed him the first time around and his mask has since been improved.

Really?! No fair. We only have Thor/Loki Blood Brothers for my Thor fix. Oh and some kind of cheap tv movie Almighty Thor

You must have not watched the show Scrubs, then. I'm kind of regretting posting that picture now because when everyone reposts it, it just becomes an out of context quote with my name at the top... But I'm with baghead - that can't REALLY be JRJR right? I know he has his off days, but this definitely looks more like creepy fan art. ANYWAY I can't wait to get some of these 'mates! I'll wait for TRU Daredevil so I can get Kingpin, but I want JJJ and Aunt May!

I'm pretty excited for this set. Not totally sure how I feel about the sculpted head but I'll reserve judgement till we see more pictures. The non sculpted head is awesome, though so I can definitely build a perfect Venom out of all of these parts. And the sculpted arms are ideal for my version of Venom.

I'll throw in my vote for a control art gallery too! Also a question for Zach - does it ruin your movie experience to already know what the REDACTED and the REDACTED are and what they look like? I've always wondered that about people in the industry but you're the first one I have access to.

Happy birthday, mattttalllica!

How's this? LOOK AT IT!

Oh yes. I forgot about the incest. Just another thing to add to the 'ultimate' version of a character. And speaking of Captain Marvel... if his skin color for the show is this dark blue-green instead of "pink" does that mean he's not wearing any pants? And is he the same guy as this Captain Marvel when he has 'pink' skin? because I know he's not this Captain Marvel...

Isn't that literally always going to be true?

This image will haunt me for a while, so I wanted to repost it to make sure it sticks with everyone else, too. The look in Gambit's eye. Bishop's mullet blowing in the breeze. The shortest man shorts to ever wear while going for a jog on a beach with other dudes.

...I...am...so...frikkin...excited for this movie. Looks like Cap will wear his mask/helmet thingy for some good screen time, the heroes will fight each other a few times, and they will have some real big nasties to fight. I can't wait. This is the movie I'm looking forward to the most this summer. TDKR is probably number two with Spider-Man in the number three slot. I'm not sure what will end up being the best, but I'm most excited for Avengers.

Unfortunately, though, this scene in Ultimates did do just that. You see how terrible Hank is to Jan here and then you see the old 616 moment you described and think to yourself, "Oh. I guess Hank is just always abusive to Jan in any universe" whereas you forgive and forget with Spider-Man like you forgive all the terrible stuff Reed Richards has done to Sue. Some of it is just old fashioned, some of it is just soap opera drama to get people to buy the next issue. And then you have what happened in the Ultimates. I am no comic book expert. Really, I prefer the cartoons most of the time. But here's my quick 2 cents that nobody asked for (yay, internet!). I always thought the Ultimate universe was supposed to be just that - an ultimate version of the Marvel universe. Cutting through decades of soap opera drama and retcons and baggage and whatever and just finding a modern way to freshen up and reintroduce our favorite heroes and villains. Conceptually, I think that was the original plan. However, what we instead got was (for the most part) a trashy, 'edgy', modern version of our favorite heroes and villains where things got mixed up for no good reason and quickly fell in to just as much soap opera drama and baggage. But there was less fun because it took place in a more 'real' universe where characters wore more sunglasses and leather and were just crazy people and bad ideas. Instead of a giant alien guy named Galactus who ate worlds, we got like some kind of big group of robot bugs called Gah Lak Tus which is clearly much more believable. So anyway, instead of giving us a cool version of Hank Pym like EMH does, we get Mark Millar's version. A true loser who can't fit in anywhere, is a total butt monkey, and tries to kill Jan with bug spray. Why? Because it's more edgy, gritty and real, I guess. But that's also why I tend to prefer the cartoons. They (typically) cut through the decades of soap opera drama and retcons and baggage and whatever to find a modern way to freshen up and reintroduce our favorite heroes and villians. Look at the 90s Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons. Look at the Timm-verse for DC cartoons. Look at Spectacular Spider-Man. Look at EMH. These are all amazing versions of the characters and stories we love. These are the ultimate universes. Sorry. That may have ended up more like 5 cents. I got a little carried away.

Undeadpool, it's good to have you join the conversation! I hope you stick around. S1:E15 - 459 A Kree Sentry has arrived, heralding Earth's entry into an interstellar war between two alien empires. This is the first episode to start exploring the relationship between Wasp and Ant-Man. I guess I started off assuming they were already a couple, since that's what I'm used to in the comics, but they never actually said they were an item. It makes more sense now why Wasp could just up and move in to the Mansion and why Ant-Man wouldn't give a second thought to staying behind in Wakanda to study vibranium. Well... even if they were married, I'm not sure Hank would give a second thought to travelling abroad to study something new... So here we have Wasp who is interested in Ant-Man and Ant-Man who is interested in Wasp, but neither will verbalize how they feel. Partially because Ant-Man is too oblivious and pre-occupied. I mean, who wouldn't want a girl like Wasp? I'm not 100% sure what she sees in him, but that's just because I like to give Ant-Man a hard time. Oh man is the Kree Sentry awesome. I had never seen one before this show and now I know how cool they are and can't wait for the minimate version we're going to get. I'm sure Miry will provide us some good info on these guys and the Kree in general. I'll just say I'm not familiar with them but I really like the cartoon version. It was small, but there was some great animation in the hallway showdown. Just the little bit where everybody reached for their gun... or hammer... or repulsor beam or whatever. The whole confrontation was pretty cool (love the mix of personalities on the team) but I just really loved that quick montage. At the end of the episode, we get another of this show's great action pieces. This fight is just cool. The show has definite style and can really show off their heroes. It was also cool how this episode was able to let Ant-Man take charge for an episode. He definitely wasn't leading the team, but he had the best idea of what was going on and what to do. I know I give the guy a hard time, but he is a very cool character. I just don't dig ants, so that just seems really lame to me. I do really like his struggle between man of science and super hero. It's all the little touches like how Wasp and Carol have the natural instinct to shoot back at the Sentry and Ant-Man just wants to try to communicate/study it. In most shows, the heroes would all just have the same reaction as Wasp and no one would try to stop them. I also like how his power shows up orange when he's shrinking and blue when he's growing. That has nothing to do with what I was talking about, but it really struck me this episode and I don't spend much time talking about Ant-Man so I thought I'd throw it in. Great episode, but did they ever explain the significance of 459? Favorite moment: Marvel saying he can disarm the bomb in 10 minutes. ...but it will detonate in 5.

These pics all look amazing! I can't wait to buy some of these guys. Great job DST My only question/complaint is why everyone has so many awesome accessories except Spidey. I just wish he had come with a good Peter Parker head. Any chance that spider sense Spider-Man will include one in the TRU wave? But seriously everyone else looks perfect.

I love Netflix. I've watched 90s Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Wolverine and the X-Men, 90s X-Men, (most of) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers... I had just finished rewatching X-Men Evolution online before I got my Netflix subscription, so I haven't watched it on there yet, but have seen it recently. I've also started rewatching Street Sharks, Extreme Dinosaurs and I tried the old Hulk cartoon, Silver Surfer, and anime-inspired Fantastic Four, but couldn't get in to any of those. I haven't even tried rewatching Iron Man's cartoon. I wish they would get Marvel's recent animated movies - Hulk vs, Planet Hulk, Tales of Asgard, etc. They do have some DC ones that are good though. I also watch a lot of other shows that aren't cartoons on Netflix - there's the Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Arrested Development, American Pickers, Louie, Party Down, Pawn Stars, Futurama ... lots of other stuff. There are some good 80s action movies, some great documentaries... just tons of stuff. PS - I'm also from Ohio. One of the several United States of America.

I loved Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing. The stories that followed were not as good. I feel like they definitely killed off Forge in that issue, but like Miry has been saying, a lot of people claim the Astonishing books were kind of a one-off or alternate story instead of main continuity... which is kind of crazy because other things that happened in Astonishing have directly affected main continuity. So who knows. He's probably 'dead' until someone remembers about him and tosses him back in the fold. As a part-time comics reader, it does make it very intimidating when there are 6 or so different X-titles floating around. I just don't know what to read to know what is going on. And I'm not really a huge fan of how dark the X-books are right now, so that's also keeping me back some. I feel like Whedon's X-Men were fun and adventurous and now things are just kind of bleak. I know the whole survival of the mutant race thing is pretty serious, but I also think comics should be fun. Oh and character selection kinda sucks right now, IMO. Magneto is interesting, but I don't care a whole lot about Namor, Dr Nemesis or the way Cyclops and Colossus are being handled right now. Anyway, I can't wait to get JJJ, Aunt May and the SHEILD agent!

I guess it just shows our different reference points, but the two teams lining up and running at each other just immediately reminded me of the 90s X-Men cartoon intro. Anyway, sounds like I need to read the Mansion Seige. Do you happen to remember which Avengers were on the roster for that?

Happy Birthday, guys!