I'm trying out a new format for the column and now on to business:

 

 

A steal at $10.99.

 

Dark Times For Crossgen

 

I knew it was coming, but it is kind of sad. They made some great comics, but bad management may have permanently killed it. Best Wishes to the people at Crossgen.

 

 

When I picked up the Justice League Adventures TPB, I noticed something in the story "Wolf's Clothing". In the story, the Justice League infiltrates a group of super villains sucessfully. Now this wouldn't be a problem if the heroes didn't talk to the villains and get away without  any suspicion. Wouldn't it make sense if the villains actually could tell the difference between their fellow villains' voices and the heroes' voices?

 

After J.L.A., I thought that was the end of that, but then I read Mary Jane 1. In the comic, Mary Jane has a brief conversation with Spiderman (who is really Peter Parker). Mary Jane doesn't make a connection with Parker (who she heard his voice earlier that day) and Spiderman's voice.

 

In short, this needs to stop. When will writers actually not write these types of scenes in their comics. Only time will tell.

 

As I've been reading comics these past months, Marvel and DC have been hyping several comics in an attempt to convince people that they're worth buying. Some times the hype is deserved for the comic, while other times it's not worth it. Here's a list of those that do and don't deserve the hype:

 

Identity Crisis 1 (worth the $4)

Spiderman (if you don't count issue 2, it's solid)

 

Jim Lee's Superman run (for now)

Superman/Batman (since issue 3)

Ultimate Fantastic Four (Bendis and Millar's run)

1602

 

Cheap Games: Sign of the End of gaming?

 

When I was visiting Gamespot yesterday, I noticed that they had their recent edition of Gamespotting (a collection of opinion columns which reflect the opinions of the Gamespot editors and a guest column). The first column was about the recent drop in prices by game stores, for certain games that werent selling well. The writer of the column, Jeff Gerstmann, suggested that the recent and dramatic drop of those prices might be a bad sign for gaming, due to the fact that there is no way the publisher of those games, nor the retailers, could make any money off of those games. Now, as a mentioned earlier, these price drops were for games that were not selling. I think (Im not claiming that this is the way things go) that the publishers receive money off of the games that they sell to retailers and leaves out any sort of loss for the publisher. The retailer, who has a stinker in their store, decides to clean their shelves of the game by cutting the price of the game drastically. People buy it, and the retailers are rid of their problem.

 

Now the column then goes on mentions concerns about ESPN NFL 2K5. For those of you who dont know, ESPN NFL 2K5 will be sold for $20, $30 cheaper than the games rival, Madden 2005. To do this, SEGA has formed an alliance with Take Two to help publish this game with them. Now the writers concern about the price drop is a little off. When you think about the fact that maybe SEGA has this price drop to grab a little piece of the Madden sales pie and maintain as much of it as possible in the future years. I think of it like the 9 cent Fantastic Four comic (which was the start of Mark Waid and Mike Wieringos run on the comic). This comic didnt give Marvel a profit on that comic alone, but as the comics next issue was produced, most of that audience was still there.

 

In closing, low prices for games that arent selling is not as bad to publishers, but to the retailers. ESPN NFL 2K5, if successful, will take a big portion of Maddens sales for the next few years. Hopefully, Im not wrong.

 

And that's it folk's!