Put A (Geeky) Lid On It!

Most of us wear our geek on our sleeve. Literally. Everywhere you look there are people wearing tee's of their favorite comic book characters. Places like TeeFury and Ript get a lot of my money for their fan designed limited edition tee's. Lately though, because it's summer and so darn sunny in California, I've started collecting hats. I think it's my new addiction. Here, a few of the coolest hats that geekdom has to offer.

Captain America Multi Fabric Cap

America! This fitted Cap (see what I did there?) is made of 75% leather, 15% nylon and 10% ripstop. It retails for $49.99 (no, not a typo). You can check it out at lids.com

Optimus Prime 59FIFTY Big Face Cap

More than meets the eye! I need to order this bad boy soon. This awesome fitted cap is made of 100% polyester and 1,000% awesome. It also retails for $49.99 and is also available at lids.com

Tokidoki 59FIFTY Hats

Marvel teamed up with Tokidoki to produce a collection of shirts, hoodies and hats based on popular Marvel characters. There are hats of Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Avengers, Doctor Doom and more.The hats retail from anywhere between $29.99 to $39.99 Check them out at amazon.com and lids.com

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Review: Captain America- The First Avenger

Since the Blade trilogy debuted Marvel has been hitting all the right notes when it comes to their live-action films. They seem to be leaps and bounds ahead of DC. Yes, DC does have Christopher Nolan in their corner, but for some reason Warner Bros. can’t lift their other properties out of mediocrity (Green Lantern, Superman Returns). Their other problem is that they can’t quite get promising projects off the ground (Joss Whedon’s Wonder Woman, Justice League). Marvel, on the other hand, continues to make entertaining films (yes, there have been missteps) on a fairly consistent basis.

Marvel’s latest, Captain America, continues their streak of well-made, satisfying comic book adaptations. Much of it has to do with the casting of Chris Evans as Captain America. Evans spends a good part of the film (thanks to the magic of filmmaking) as Steve Rogers, a 98-pound “kid from Brooklyn.” All he wants to do is join the Army but because of his physical limitations he is denied every time. Evans plays him with such heart that even after he gets pumped full of Super Soldier Serum and starts slinging the shield you can’t help but feel that the film works better in the first half.

That’s not to say that the film falls flat in the second half. In fact, the action comes fast and furious and doesn’t let up. Hugo Weaving (The Red Skull) takes a role that could have, in lesser hands, easily slipped into camp and plays it pitch perfect. The handful of scenes between him and Evans were everything I’d hoped they’d be. The breakout here is Hayley Atwell as Rogers’ crush Peggy Carter. Unlike Blake Lively in the Green Lantern, Atwell is given a lot more to do than be the damsel in distress. The chemistry between Atwell and Evans really works and the writers create a believable romance between the two. Rogers and Carter both had to prove themselves in the field which makes it easy to believe that these two characters can connect.

The film works on every level. The film has to do a lot of work; introducing Cap, giving him a believable arc, setting him up for his appearance in the Avengers and the director and writers achieved all of it. It had everything that Green Lantern lacked. It even had a song and dance number by Alan Menken!

It’s interesting to see how the filmmakers of Captain America, Iron Man and Thor are tying all of their pieces together to connect it all to next year’s Avengers film. I for one cannot wait to see how Evans plays against the likes of Downey, Jr. and Hemsworth. Captain America has to be the one to take charge and lead a team that includes a cocky billionaire, the God of Thunder and The Hulk. 2012 can’t get here soon enough.

The Walking Dead Season One Does the Double Dip (FUCK!)

Were you a big fan of the first season of The Walking Dead? Of course you were. Were you like me and purchased the Blu-ray set the day it was released? Yup, me too. Guess what, we got screwed. Come October 4th Starz/Anchor Bay is re-releasing the first season on Blu-ray in a 3-Disc Special Edition set. 

There will be two editions: A Special Edition and a Limited Edition. Both will have all of the previous version's special features and include new content: Pilot Episode: Black and White Version; Audio Commentaries on All 6 episodes with Writer/Director Frank Darabont, Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer/Writer Robert Kirkman, Producer Denise Huth, Actor Andrew Lincoln, Special Effects Make-Up Artist/Consulting Producer Greg Nicotero and more; We Are The Walking Dead; Bring Out the Dead: KNB and the Art of Making Zombies; Digital Decay: The VFX of The Walking Dead; No More Room in Hell: The Walking Dead Phenomenon; Adapting The Dead; and Killer Conversations: Frank Darabont & Greg Nicotero.

The Limited Edition collector's tin will come with an exclusive wearable zombie mask from NECA designed by the series own make-up artist, Greg Nicotero.

The first 100,000 units of the Blu-ray and Limited Edition Collector’s Tin together includes an EXCLUSIVE Cryptozoic “The Walking Dead” trading card. Suggested list price for the Special Edition is $59.99 and the Limited Edition is $89.99.

Will you be doing the double dip?





 

Funimation's Summer of Streaming

Not at ComicCon this weekend? Bored? Love anime? Head on over to Funimation.com for their Summer of Streaming event! Turn your computer into a TV and stream over 5,000 episodes of your favorite shows. Everything from Ah! My Goddess, Air Gear, Black Butler, Eden of the East and more!

Also, if you're anywhere near Monterey, CA this weekend be sure and check out the first annual AnimeiCon. Three days of anime goodness with special guests: Jamie Marchi (Witchblade), Chris Cason (Fullmetal Alchemist), Trina Nishimura (Negima!?) and more.

Captain America: Super Soldier - Dossier 4 - Movie and Game

In this all new behind the scenes feature for Captain America: Super Soldier, Game Director at Next Level Games, Brandon Gill talks about the balancing movie, comic and video game in the creation of Captain America: Super Soldier.

Written by Brandon Gill, Game Director, Next Level Games

SEGA and Marvel were excellent partners throughout the development of Captain America: Super Soldier. During our early prototype phases SEGA was highly involved working together with Next Level Game's philosophy of "game-mechanics first".

When it came time to start work on the story, we were pleasantly surprised by Marvel's insistence that we not directly follow the plot of the movie. This combination allowed us the freedom to assess the game as a stand-alone experience and create a story to fit the game-play that we had developed.

Christos Gage was a pleasure to work with. He brought his talents to the table after we had already decided on many of the game-flows that fit with our prototyped mechanics. Not only did he work around our existing needs, he went out of his way to enhance all of our game-play by weaving it into the narrative. Every enemy, weapon and piece of equipment in the game has a place within the story, fleshed out and enhanced by his writing.

As much as the game stands alone in plot, we certainly made every effort to have it fit within the movie universe. It sits as a sort of side-story that was unexplored in the film; like an "untold chapter".

We also maintained characters that appeared in both the movie and the game by using the likeness of the actors. Wherever we could, we used the actors for voice work as well. Chris Evans in particular did a wonderful job voicing Cap for the game, creating a strong character connection from movie to game.

Days Missing Volume 2: Kestus

From Arcahia Entertainment-

The ongoing journey of the mysterious hero, The Steward, will continue this summer with the release of Days Missing Volume 2: Kestus from Archaia Entertainment and Roddenberry Productions. Eisner-award winning author Phil Hester returns for this second volume which promises to expand upon The Steward’s intriguing origins and what his existence means for mankind’s destiny. Fans of the series, who’ve been waiting patiently since last year’s exciting conclusion of volume 1, will finally get their answers when Volume 2 is released in stores on July 15.

Days Missing Volume 2: Kestus continues the saga of The Steward, a mysterious being whose ability to “fold” days of time has resulted in critical human events being absent from our historical record. Their existence is not remembered… but the occurrences of these days have forever changed the course of our evolution. Since humanity’s birth, The Steward has stood as a guiding force for our species. But now, he is not alone! The emergence of the ancient being, Kestus, may put everything he knows in question, and the future of those he means to protect in jeopardy. Illustrated by Russ Manning award winner David Marquez, Days Missing: Kestus spans the ages, featuring adventures about ancient China, the burning of Egypt’s Alexandria, the 1969 moon launch, Y2K, and the Large Hadron Collider.

Captain America: Super Soldier - Main Bosses

In this all new behind the scenes feature for Captain America: Super Soldier, Game Director at Next Level Games, Brandon Gill gives us a sneak peek at a few of the main bosses that players will experience while playing Captain America: Super Soldier.

Written by Brandon Gill, Game Director, Next Level Games

The villains that we added to the game were chosen for a mixture of reasons.

For characters like Arnim Zola, who is a genetic scientist and much less of a military figure than the other villains, we felt that he set a wonderful stage for Cap to question himself and what he believes in. Zola augments biology to extremes that Cap feels is wrong, but it’s a slippery moral slope, because Cap himself has been genetically altered as well. This conflict was a major part of the narrative.

Other characters like Iron Cross, who is a huge mech, were brought in based on the enthusiasm of Christos Gage (the game’s writer) and gave us the opportunity to re-envision them in the more "realistic" setting of World War II.

Our designs for the boss characters were strongly based around the game’s combat system. Since the combat is designed to deal with multiple enemies, we felt that it would be a disservice to the game experience if Cap was set up to fight every boss one-on-one.

To this end we designed the bosses to be enhanced versions of existing enemies, for example, ranged, melee, etc., and then placed them into unique multi-enemy encounters and highly scripted situations to elevate them as climactic battles.

This allows the player to naturally assess each situation and fight the boss by using the skills that they have learned through previous battles, while still maintaining a high level of excitement and unique flavor to each individual boss encounter.

 

Preview: Conquest Tactics

For all of you CCG fans out there, Zeitgeyser LLC has announced a release date for their new game Conquest Tactics. The game "combines the strategic depth of a miniatures game, the deckbuilding options of a traditional CCG and the grid-based movement of chess." Zeitgeyser has created an introduction video to get us better acquainted with the gameplay:

Conquest Tactics will be available in stores and online starting July 20th. Presales are up at their store page now!

Enter Fangoria Magazine's Unleash Your Inner Demon Contest

In honor of the July 13th debut of Alan Robert's new series, Crawl To Me from IDW, Fangoria Magazine is holding one hell of a contest (no purchase necessary!). From now until August 1st, 5 p.m. you can enter to win an awesome prize package that includes a one year subscription to Fangoria Magazine AND a one-of-a-kind Crawl To Me ArtGuitar Riffmaster Rock Band/Guitar Hero controller with its own coffin case!

Enter here: Crawl To Me Contest