Wwwwwwwwwwwow, lookit that art.
I like how Betty's hips apparently can cock at an angle Leifeld would have drawn. Or how Parker's forhead has two separate eyebrows, one set right above the first on his fucking long face. Or how Betty's breast has this line coming out of it from nowhere. Or how Parker's shin apparently has some sort of cancerous growth that makes it jut out. Or how Betty's leg can apparently disconnect from her hips at will to no discomfort.
We were going over how One More Day and now One Moment In Time are the stupidest Goddamn things to ever happen to Spider-Man, and how the comics have been kinda ass lately, and we got onto the Ultimates universe. He was talking about how in Ultimates X-Men Cyclops joined Magneto because Professor Xavier tried to mind-control Scott into doing what he wanted, so he quit.
I was kind of shocked that Professor X would do such a thing. I said that I couldn't get into Ultimates anything because everyone in Ultimates was an asshole, including the X-Men apparently.
He said, wait, no, not everyone's an asshole!
Oh, really? Like who? Hawkeye the psychopath? Cyclops? Professor X the psuedo-objectivist? Captain America the racist/bigot? Tony Stark the alcoholic?
We eventually got off the subject and started talking about other stuff, and a few minutes later he's all, "Spider-Man!"
Huh? Spider-Man what?
He said Spider-Man isn't an asshole in Ultimates!
I was like, it took you ten minutes to think of one person in Ultimates who isn't an asshole? Kind of a telling of the whole problem isn't it?
"The idea that THQ is somehow "disrespecting customers" with this kind of rhetoric misunderstands the situation as completely as it is possible to do so. In a literal way, when you purchase a game used, you are not a customer of theirs. If I am purchasing games in order to reward their creators, and to ensure that more of these ingenious contraptions are produced, I honestly can't figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy. From the the perspective of a developer, they are almost certainly synonymous."
I'm curious where that mysterious used copy of a game came from. Did GameStop take it off the shelf and slap a USED label on it and screw themselves out of ten bucks?
Nnnnnnnno, I'm pretty sure someone bought it, traded it in, and then that copy is picked up by another customer. If it's a good game the sales numbers are still going to do well, as people won't want to get rid of their copies. Plus hell, I bought Too Human, and I fucking hated that game. I don't want to support those developers so I sold it. Why is the existence of the secondhand market such an awful thing?
Even the oft-reviled GameStop you seem to berate so often doesn't drop the price on their games for close to three months, and even then it's by like, ten bucks at most.
By the way that's a real slick strawman there dude, bein all "Oh yeah if I am buying to support the developer/publisher, then piracy is the same as used games." That's really slick, there, instead of just calling the people who buy used thieves, you're saying they are if you support the developers. So, you know, you aren't a thief if you buy used, but you're certainly depriving the developers from their hard earned money, you awful person.
Plus, if you even look at it, how much exactly are they 'losing' in sales? Often times people pick up copies on eBay or Amazon on the cheap, months or even years later, and sometimes that's the only way they buy the game. Are they even going to buy in the first place?
What you are saying is, if the secondhand market didn't exist, more people would have to buy new. Have to. Removal of the secondhand market results in forcing more people to purchase games for higher value if they like it or not. Call me crazy but that's a terrible idea.
I understand that Gamestop's push of the used gaming market is good business for them but I don't understand why there's this fucking backward-ass disgust for the entire secondhand market. Cars and CDs and books and comics secondhand take money away from publishers/creators. This doesn't mean that there's any efforts to squelch it. Gaming is pretty much the first time that developers are allowed to provide incentive for buying new instead of picking up used.
And hey don't get me wrong, Gamestop is bullshit. But what Tycho and Gabe are saying is do not ever buy used. Like, not even eBay or Amazon or your friend selling you his copy for ten bucks. You're a thief.
How does renting fit into this diagram anyway? If I rent a copy from GameFly or Blockbuster, sometimes even buy used from GameFly's bargain bin, I'm still depriving those developers of their money. I could have bought it to play it, but I did not. I am a thief.
Also, look at GameStop next time you're going by. I'm going to wager that 90% of their games aren't even in production anymore. Usually when I look for an old game like Okami or Shadow of the Colossus, I call up GameStop since I doubt it'd be more than twenty bucks. Most game publishers stop printing after about a year.
As I've said before, I don't fault this incentive at all. Mass Effect 2 or Gears of War 2 had perfect responses to it, by signing you up for a free download of a pack of DLC, and I completely understand why developers do that. Tycho even said this. But you are not going to underhandedly call me a thief for buying old PS2 games.
Don't get me wrong - when digital distribution hits the frontlines like Steam has been and I can buy my game cheap from the developer, I am all in favor of it. But until this alternative exist I don't want to be told, "You're just like a pirate" by the biggest PR name in gaming today because I notice Resident Evil 4 on the cheap.
Bonus Stage: Look at their response to the rape comic vs their response to this one and watch your head explode. Apparently the opinions of gamers are more important than the opinions of rape victims.
Bonus Bonus Stage: What I hate the most about Gabe's response is that Tycho pretty much called every gamer in the world who buys secondhand a pirate, and Gabe stepped in to say, hey, you know, it's okay, we're allowed to disagree. The fundamental difference is that they both agree and Penny Arcade is their collective brainchild, so this whole thing - just like the rape comic - reads as them insulting you, then following up with saying it's okay that you disagree with them. It's so backhanded and insulting.
Extra Special Bonus Stage: It's good to know that as wealthy adults who run the biggest internet-distributed comic today they feel my being broke is detrimental to the gaming industry. I should stop being so broke.
"If bad guys steal this book, I'll chop your head off. After I kill all the bad guys you can heal yourself with your Doctor Power."
"Just...just protect the book, okay?"
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
...but reading Wikipedia on the Blue Lanterns really makes it sound like, ridiculously Marysuetastic. I'm talking like Eragon here.
Like Green Lanterns have this amazing power ring that can do practically anything, and only recently did they overcome the yellow weakness.
And along comes the Blue Lanterns, which can
Blue power rings are fueled by hope; they give their users the most power, but they must be near an active Green power ring to tap into their full potential. Otherwise, the blue rings are only capable of the default abilities (flight and a protective aura). This is because hope is nothing without the willpower to enact it. Blue rings must be fueled by true hope in order to operate at their user's command.
While within the proximity of a Green Lantern's ring, a blue ring can heal wounds, neutralize the corrupting effects of a red power ring, block the energy-stealing properties of orange rings, can drain the power from yellow power rings, and recharge a green power ring to twice its maximum power level. This effect can also negatively impact a green ring, as close proximity to the blue central power battery will overcharge a green ring, causing it to implode (taking the user's hand with it). If a Blue Lantern wishes it, it can also dampen the hunger caused by the orange light. A noteworthy ability of blue rings is the power to scan a target's psyche and create illusions based on their hopes. A blue power ring is capable of feeding off the hope of other beings, eschewing constant recharging while still performing impressive feats, including reversing a dying sun's age. Geoff Johns also confirmed that blue rings grant precognitive visions to their wielders.
Overcharge Green Lantern rings? Heal wounds? Precognition? Block vampirism of yellow? Slices, dices, and makes three different sizes of french fries?
I mean yeah this is of course only when Green Lanterns are next to each other...but they're allies. Blue Lanterns are good guys. They won't ever be at odds.
On top of that, Green Lanterns are the only Lanterns with their own books. Sinestro Corps kinda did but it was a big crossover event and they're just Green antagonists anyway. So you have heroes in a book that fight alongside Green Lanterns...and completely pull insane superpowers out of their anuses!
Again I admit I haven't read it yet, but from the sounds of it I'm getting the feeling that Hal and Kyle go to fight off Sinestro, and Saint Walker's like, "Sups." And when Hal and Kyle can't do it, Walker comes in and goes, "It's cool, chill the fuck out everyone, I got this." And Hal and Kyle go, man, those Blue Lanterns sure are great superheroes.
So, let me get this straight.
The Green Lantern Corps is created by Ganthet and the Guardians who deprive themselves from emotion because it's dangerous, IE fear. However, a rebel group of alien women who don't wish to separate themselves from emotions form a dangerous splinter faction that lets a love-fueled gem zip from planet to planet, making hostile takeovers of whatever female body it wishes with no concern for human life. Its grand plan is to encase everything in crystal to keep it in suspended animation for all time.
So yes, the right and proper men The Guardians cleanse emotion from their lives, while the hot tempered women Zamarons run off and do senseless and dangerous things that turn them into terrorists.
The men are smart, logical, and good while the women are dumb, emotional, and villainous.
Um.
What the fuck Geoff Johns?
This is a four-page comic I had Zack Finfrock draw a while ago. It's the first couple of pages of a superhero comic I've been brainstorming for a while, called "Six." Figure this is as good a place as any to display some of my writing. Maybe I'll put some prose on here.
Ehhh.
(Note: His shirt is supposed to be black and have a "6" on the front. Zack kind of ducked out of finishing the comic at the last minute.)
Why do I get the feeling that this is just going to be their way of gradually bringing Parker and MJ back together while filling in the blanks of what happened with Mephisto's stupid fucking barter?
The big set up is oh hey we're explaining shit. And pretty much any mystery that gets explained very quickly turns into destroying any compelling reason to keep going in the story. So if you remove the mystery you need a new hook, something new and crazy, something like...
A surprise relationship! Our readers would never expect that!
