Here is the first look at the Wolverine

The first look poster for The Wolverine is beautiful and it seems to be modeled on the Japanese Haiku

Image Courtesy: The Wolverine Movie 

The movie is set in Japan and explores Wolverine's past in Japan and his first real love, a woman named Itsu. He also faces off against a deadly foe, the Silver Samurai. The Silver Samurai has been chosen for Itsu by her family, but she loves Logan. The story seems to revolve around Wolverine's love for Itsu. But rest assured, there will be some wolverine style hack and slash kick ass action.

But the question here is whether he'll be endowed with Adamantium, as in the comics Wolverine's time in Japan is a prelude to his returning to America and before Weapon X.

But earlier pictures have shown him with Adamantium claws. So we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Iron Man 3: The Iron Patriot

Iron Man 3 will hit theatres in April, 2013. The third installment of the franchise features two bad guys. Or thats how it looks like. Tony Stark aka Iron Man, will be facing off agains the classic baddie The Mandarin, who incidentally, in the comics is described as the leader of the Order of the Ten Rings. The same terrorist group that kidnapped Tony in the first installment. Now with Jon Favreau not at the helm, the new director Shane Black is going in another direction, making Iron Man grittier a la The Dark Knight. 

Tony Stark will be going up against the Mandarin, that much is for sure. But here, the questions arise about the movie's second villain/ anti- hero/ ally? The Iron Patriot. 

Screenrant.com

Blastr.com

These photos show that the Iron Patriot, is decked up in the flight suit customised for Col. Rhodey aka War Machine, but with a star spangled paint job. But, heres the question, The Iron Patriot in the comic books is described as a baddie, the bizzarro to Iron Man. But if Rhodey Rhodes is piloting the suit, that characterisation for the Iron Patriot may not fly well with fans of the comic books. Though it could lead room for a possible confrontation between Rhodey and Tony like in Iron Man 2, but that scenario seems highly unlikely.

Or a more likely version would be  that War Machine aka The Iron Patriot will be a government sanctioned Iron Man who fights crime and terror at the behest of the government, which could again pit The Iron Patriot and Iron Man against each other. 

So, we'll just have to wait and see if the Iron Patriot will be fighting alongside Iron Man or against him.

Snippets of Fiction

So, keeping with the intro to my blog. I will be posting snippets of fiction here, some maybe random, some may be sequential. But hopefully they should help you pass the time at work. Hahahaha who am I kidding. Pass the time? You've got a butt load of stuff to pass the time. Its the freaking internet, thats at your fingertips. But trust me, you come here, you'll get lost in another world.

Trust me it'll be worth it.

Anyway, just give it gander. Who knows maybe you'll enjoy it. 

So, watch this space for more snippets of fiction. 

And in case you're wondering why I'm foraying into fiction just check out my post on being published.

Iron Man 3: The Mandarin

Iron Man 3, directed by Shane Black will hit theatres in April of 2013.

The story line is still being kept under wraps, but from what can be seen from the Trailer and set photos. The events of the movie take place after New York, i.e. The Avengers. Tony Stark is back in Malibu and this time, he seems shaken and vulnerable. He doesn't seem like the upbeat, arrogant and supremely confident Tony Stark of the previous installments. He seems damaged and broken.

In the just released trailer, he gets his house blown up by The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. It has to be noted that The Mandarin, doesn't seem too close to his ethnic origins as described in the Iron Man Comic books. The Mandarin as the name suggests, has links to China and South East Asia, but here it seems that the filmmakers are taking a slight departure. We'll just have to wait for the movie to hit screens in 2013.

Heres a first look at The Mandarin by Ben Kingsley as released by Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures

    The image on the right is how the Mandarin is portrayed in the comics.                                                                   

villains.wikia.com

   

The new Iron Man 3 Trailer is out!!!!

So, the wait is finally over, the new Iron Man 3 Trailer has hit and its every bit as amazing. It seems a little darker and grittier than the previous instalments in the franchise. And by the looks of it, it takes place after the Avengers, leaving Tony Stark a little vulnerable. And from what i've heard Marvel may be coming out with a book that explains the events leading up to the Avengers and which explains the absence of War Machine in the Avengers as well. We also get a glimpse of Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin. Check out the trailer below: 

That right there is the Iron Patriot, and even though he looks like Iron Man, he ain't a good guy.Watch this space for more deets on Iron Man 3.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

So i just stumbled onto this, test footage from a shelved Batman game, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Picture Courtesy DC Comics and Wikipedia

Its based on the Graphic novel of the same name, which is now considered the first elseworld's story. For those who do not know DC Elseworld's takes characters out of their original setting and places them in an alternate reality.
In this story, Bruce Wayne is after Jack the Ripper. Pretty cool huh, the Dark Knight vs Jack the Ripper.

The game as you'll see in the test footage has an awesome looking batman, the setting is quintessentially the Dark Knight, but the gameplay, however seems a little repetetive and dull, maybe because the test footage doesn't show any bad guys that Batman can beat up. Anyway, after Rocksteady Studios is done with the Arkham City Sequel, which is being called a prequel possibly set in the silver age. I think they should give this one a go. I wouldn't ask them to limit to limit themselves to this storyline alone, because DC Elseworlds has a plethora of fantastic settings and villain possibilities. Dracula anyone?

Check the test footage here 

 

So any way, which storyline would you like to see on a PC or console near you?

Nerds and Nerdhood evolving in Pop Culture

"You're such a nerd", this statement today would illicit an "Awww so cute" or an "OMG me too", but in the days of yore, being a nerd was looked upon with disdain and more often than not contempt. Has pop cultured evolved or is this fascination with video games and super heroes just a new fad for studio execs to cash in on? I honestly don't know..

Comic Books have always been considered, a nerd's domain. If you read comics, you were a nerd and a loser with no social life and no date for the prom. But today, if you say that you prefer Jim lee's art complementing Scott Snyder's epic storyline, you'll probably get laid. Ok, that probably may not be true, but you're guaranteed to get some tongue action at least.Joe Kubert passed away recently, most people who watched the Avengers or the dark knight rises may not, scratch that, do not have any idea who he was. Joe Kubert was a comic book artist who pencilled iconic characters like the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that first editions of Kubert's rendering would go for a hefty price nowadays

You see, today, nerd culture has changed, propelled forward by shows like The Big Bang Theory. The YOLO generation has no idea what the Golden Age and Silver Age of comics is. They go around wearing t-shirts with quotes like "Beam me up Scotty",  when they have no idea that the original line from Star Trek was "Beam me up, Mr. Scott", and if you make the mistake of pointing that out, may god have mercy on your soul, because these faux nerds are worse than grammar nazis when it comes to protecting their false nerdhood.  In the days of yore comics and video games were never part of pop culture, they were pursuits followed by kids or weird creepers in basements. Which in itself was such a base and misguided generalisation.

But now, every one plays video games, if you don't, then you're not socially balanced or better yet you're weird. This may be a sweeping generalisation but its true. These days playing video games is equated with letting off steam like watching football and yelling at the screen was a way of letting off steam in the days of yore. If you're a true nerd today, you would still cherish the joy of blowing into cartridges (get your mind out of the gutter i meant blowing air), okay that didn't come out right, if you're a true nerd you'd get what i'm talking about. Anyway If you're a true nerd you'd still enjoy selecting games from a menu, still enjoy hannah barbera classics, and truly enjoy iconic characters that you have aspired to be like before they hit the mainstream and started making big bucks for movie studios. I for one have been a fan of Batman ever since i was born, literally since i was born, not figuratively, but literally, but that is a story for another post. And now i see my friends who can't differentiate between the riddler and the joker (i mean c'mon) talking about how they have been life long fans of Batman comics. When in reality, their exposure to Batman goes as far as the Arkham games and Christopher Nolans epic rendition on the big screen.

Though i really appreciate that comics, video games, and action figures have hit the mainstream in a big way. I still can't help but feel, that all this hullabaloo is a passing trend. Its just the band wagon picking up the latest trend and once its done with it, true nerds will be condemned to the basements and labelled immature like they have been in the past. While the jack asses who claim to be true nerds will jump ship like scared rats.


So this is me, a guy who really enjoys comics and video games saying, if you question my leisure interests with any kind of judgement, you may live to regret it.
 

Chuck and Beans says it all

The truth behind blogging, explained quite succinctly by Chuck and Beans Comics

 

ME IS FINALLY PUBLISHED!!!!!!! YAAAAY!!!!

First of all I'd like to thank all the guys and gals who visit my blog, even with just a handful of posts on my fledgeling rant space. I have had the honour of receiving four digit visits in the past month, when i decided to start blogging again. You guys are the best. You have no idea how awesome it was to see the entire world map highlighted in green on my stats.  It kinda justified the title of my blog, AWESOMENESS. So once again, thank you for that. This thank you encompasses all the guys and girls who even gave a passing glance to what i had to say, from India, Russia, Europe, USA and the rest of the world. You guys are awesome.

So, yeah, I know I haven't been very regular in updating my posts, well its no excuse, but I was busy with work and some other stuff. And to be honest, I didn't think any one gave a rats ass about what i had to say about anything. But now I gotta kinda re-assess. So here goes:


The reason I haven't been updating my blog was because i was working on something, i was working on something very special, it was gestating for close to eight and a half months and now that very special something is about to come out into the world. My book LOVE UNHITCHED will hit bookstores all over the country (India) on the 15th of September. But for those outside India, fret not my brethren, you can order it online on Amazon.com soon enough. For those of you in India my book is available for pre- order on Flipkart.com, heres the link if you want to give it a read http://tinyurl.com/9bjbgnx