Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Trailer

"When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew."

The waiting to learn who the villain is in the this movie begins, a mystery that's going to be killing me 'til May or until it's leaks on to the net. My personal belief along with many others is it is Khan Noonien Singh, my theory is in this new timeline the Federation found Khan and his ship full of genetically engineered followers years before James T. Kirk took command of the Enterprise and has been using him to do off the books black ops mission until he is betrayed and left for dead which leads him to return with a grand plan to destroy the Federation. My evidence is in the trailer as we see the villain jumping down from an extremely high height, swinging around a very big weapon effortlessly, and showing superior and powerful martial arts abilities, and then in the extended Japanese teaser trailer he has the additional quote of "Is there anything you would not do for your family?" which I think is talking about his fellow genetic augmented brethren being held by the Federation as leverage for Khan to do their dirty work.

The official synopsis even says: "Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction." , sounds like a genetically engineered super warrior to me. "an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization" I believe points toward the shadow cabinet of higher-up Federation officials that's behind all the darker and secret events that keeps the Federation as a major power but still appear peacekeeping and exploring, perhaps Section 31. I also believe Peter Weller plays a member of this cabinet, perhaps maybe Commodore Decker, Weller did say in an interview he has his own ship.

Gundam 00 Qan[T] Complete

Finally got around to building the weapons for 00 Qan[T], and now armed and ready for combat he is complete. The next kit I have begun construction is the Real Grade Gundam Mk.II, which is my first Real Grade and has so far been a very tedious undertaking to say the least. Also I want to apologize to my followers for my lack of post as of late, but a combination of busy off-line life and a dying computer that I pretty sure is on it's way out giving me constant trouble it has been difficult to do anything on the computer or internet related, but I assure I am still here and have not forgotten or ignoring my blog.

DC New 52 Reviews: Deathstroke #2-12 & Detective Comics #2-12 + Annual

Deathstroke #2-12

I'll be honest with you, I buy and read this book cause I'm a huge Deathstroke fan, and I'm just enjoying seeing him kill people in different ways every month. I think the Legacy story played out nicely revealing who was behind the attacks and the costumed mercenaries trying to take out Slade. Now I can't say I love Rob Liefeld's art above anyone elses but after 20 years I have become accustomed to his drawing style, his writing though could definitely be better cause issues 9-12's story featuring Lobo felt fairly plain and not thought out much past the initial basic premise, was nice seeing Zealot though, even if she wasn't written well. 

Detective Comics #2-12 & Annual #1 

If you've read my review of issue 1 of Detective Comics then you'd know this series didn't actually start out very good in my eyes, issue 2 was an improvement, the Dollmaker storyline with Batman on the trail to save Commissioner Gordon was decent. The Penguin story is painfully stretched over the three issues of #5-7, #8 is a stand-alone tale with Scarecrow having Batman take down Hugo Strange's son, while in #9 Batman takes down Talons attacking Arkahm Asylum far too easy in Night of The Owls tie-in. Guest artist Ed Benes's art in issue 10 was a welcomed sight, cause I've got to say Tony Daniel is my less favorite Batman artist right now, and I did enjoy the sci-fi elements in the Mr. Toxic story arc, even though it felt like it should been more in a Superman book then in Batman's. Then there's the boring Annual with Black Mask and Mad Hatter, don't even get me started on that, all I can say is thankfully a new creative team takes over with issue 13.

MOTU Prince Adam & Orko Review

Originally released as a San Diego Comic-Con 2010 exclusive "Orko with Prince Adam pack-in" finally gave us The Most Powerful Man In The Universe's alter ego. Later re-released and made available for purchase off Matty Collector for those like me who couldn't get to that convention. This version of Orko is the painted re-release that was only available off the Matty Collector website, the original convention exclusive Orko was made of heat sensitive color changing plastic, I prefer the painted version to better fit in with the other MOTU Classics figures.

Prince Adam is no surprise a repaint of He-Man sporting a new soft plastic vest and resculpted smiling head. Painted in colors closely following he's appearance in the 80's cartoon right down to he's purple boots and light purple tights which along with his painted-on white shirt have a nice light shadowing that brings out and really helps define the muscle sculpt. The MOTU Classics are more based off the original 80's action figures then how they appeared in the TV series, where the original Prince Adam had he's He-Man's gauntlets painted white, here the sculptors The Four Horseman gave Adam identical round gauntlets and painted them in an amazing pearl white, which is the real standout detail on this figure.

Adam comes with three accessories to call he's own, a Power Sword painted in magenta and purple, a Power Sword Half in the same colors, and an additional interchangeable head with the usual He-Man grimace. I myself would of liked him to come with a regularly colored Power Sword, but Mattel stuck with the original's sword color. The vast majority of MOTU collectors wished Mattel added a sword slit on Adam's vest to hold he's sword like his sister Adora's figure, but I'm guess they wanted to keep with the design of the original figure, and to the cartoon where you never actually see Adam wearing the sword on his back, and seems like he pulls the sword out from under the back of he's vest.

Orko is a amazing little figure in perfect scale with the other Classics figures, and adds another major cast member of the original cartoon to my shelf. Along with perfectly painted colors Orko has three points of articulation in each of he's arms, and a sweet ball shaped head on a ball joint neck which you can rotate and tilt in almost any direction. Orko's three accessories are he's scepter which I think is a scaled down revision of the one he's 2002 toy came with, a closed spellbook, and he's clear flight stand to appear floating while standing with he's fellow defenders of Eternia.

Iron Man Anime Movie & Heroes United Trailers

I still haven't seen any of the Marvel Anime yet, hear Iron Man is the best out of the bunch, and Rise of Techovore is looking to be awesome and definitely worthy of being the first feature length anime movie. I'm wondering though if this movie is a sequel to the Iron Man anime series or suppose to fit in the Iron Man/Avengers movie universe. Heroes United on the other hand is looking horrible, I was hoping for something better then Invincible Iron Man, but it look like it's on par or worse than it, I honestly don't even know if I'm going to buy it now.

Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United Announced

Source: Entertainment Weekly

'Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United': First Look at Marvel Animation's debut movie EXCLUSIVE

by Anthony Breznican

The big green guy and the big metal guy are having a post-Avengers reunion in animated form. Marvel Animation Studios has exclusively revealed plans to EW for its debut feature, Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United, which will team Tony Stark and Bruce Banner in a fight against the villain Zzzax, a creature formed out of pure energy who can absorb human minds. As these first images show, the movie (which will debut on home video April 23) is a hybrid of computer-generated animation and hand-drawn art. Zzzax is a character long familiar to fans of the Hulk, a sentient being created by accident after a terrorist attack on a nuclear plant caused a bizarre chain reaction. The living energy mass that results, dubbed “It!” on the cover of its first comic book appearance in August 1973, is a kind of giant, lumbering brainwave vampire, consuming the electrical impulses in the heads of every living thing it encounters.

“We see his origin in the movie. It’s what would happen if the entire Eastern seaboard [electrical grid] went out,” says Jeph Loeb, executive VP of Marvel’s TV division, which is overseeing the movie. “The two heroes meet up, thinking of each other as to blame.” What happens next? “Calamity ensues,” Loeb says. Naturally.

Fans have been hoping for a team-up between the two heroes since May, after Robert Downey Jr.’s Stark rolled off into the sunset with Mark Ruffalo’s de-Hulked Bruce Banner. At Comic-Con this summer, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige teased a crowd of thousands: “Well, if you remember at the end of Avengers, he jumped into the car with Tony,” Feige said, drawing anticipatory cheers — which he then annihilated. “And Tony dropped him off at the Port Authority, and we’ll see him again someday."

So maybe the Hulk won’t turn up in next spring’s Iron Man 3, but before that stop at the bus station there may have been time for one little adventure. While the animated Heroes United isn’t a direct sequel to The Avengers, “we welcome people to interpret any way they like,” says Loeb. "In tone and character, we want to follow our best leader. In this version, Adrian Pasdar (NBC’s Heroes) voices Iron Man and Fred ­Tatasciore (a veteran of previous Hulk cartoons) voices Banner and his monstrous alter-ego. 

Zzzax will be voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, best known as Klaus the goldfish on American Dad. (We’re guessing this movie will feature a much different accent.) While the film doesn’t have Downey or Ruffalo, it will try to capture the spirit of their onscreen partnership in The Avengers. “The challenge was to pick up the banter between the two of them. Certainly, Adrian Pasdar’s performance is inspired by what Robert Downey Jr. does, and Mark laid down such an incredible path for us to be able to follow,” Loeb says.

There’s one significant change from the live-action movie: “You’ll see in Heroes United that Hulk’s a little more articulate,” Loeb says. After road-tripping with Stark, how could he not become a bit more loquacious? There’s already a separate Big Hero 6 film in the works, that marks the first partnership between Marvel and Walt Disney Studios Animation, a separate entity within the same parent company. But if the Heroes United is a hit, expect more superhero mash-ups from the Marvel Animation Studios division.

“It’s our hope that we will start doing more feature-length direct to Blu-ray and DVD stories,” he says. “They’ll more than likely be in team-up situations. We find it works really well when we have big exciting adventures with two or more of our heroes.”

Wow, Marvel Animation isn't dead, I almost thought they crawled under away and died since DC's animated films have been dominating the home release comic book feature market. I don't want to say I have high hopes for this, but I really do want it to be a more then decent flick. Marvel teaming up with Disney Animation sounds intriguing, not entirely sure about Big Hero 6 being their first joint venture, but we shall see.

Resident Evil: Damnation Trailer

The next Resident Evil CGI animated movie comes out on DVD & Blu-Ray September 25th. I love the previous movie Degeneration, and I'm totally stoked that Capcom and Sony are made another one, and hope more in the future. The greatest thing I love about these movies is that are officially canon, taking place in the same universe as the video games, with Damnation looking to take place before RE6, and maybe even setting up a couple things for 6.

DC New 52 Reviews: Batman: The Dark Knight #1-10 & Batwoman #0-12

Batman: The Dark Knight #1-10

Drawn by and co-written by David Finch, an artist who's work I've enjoyed in Marvel Comics and was genuinely excited to hear was going to do work for DC and especially on Batman titles. Now Dark Knight is good, but is nowhere near as incredible as Synder's Batman or Batman & Robin, so out of the four first wave Batman titles Dark Knight ranks 3rd. Unlike the top 2 ranked Bat-titles Dark Knight is the most connected with the rest of the DC Universe with appearances for other heroes like The Flash and Superman, and mentions of teams such as The Justice League and Birds of Prey, so definitely the more Superheroey of the Bat-books.

I enjoyed the mystery of the new Toxin/Venom, and Bruce's new love interest, but I do have to say I feel Bane's appearance was poorly handled, from the dialog to the quick fight, let alone his redesigned look to match his design in the Arkham Asylum/Arkham City games with I'm not a fan of, his look in the games not the games themselves, love the games. Guest writers Joe Harris and Judd Winick wrote issues 8 and 9 while #10 began Gregg Hurwitz's run as ongoing writer replacing co-writer Paul Jenkins with Finch now solely on art, starting a new story arc featuring The Scarecrow.

Batwoman #0-12

This comic book right here boys and girls is one of the greatest comic book series I have ever read with sensational personal drama and action written by  J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman. J. H. Williams III is also the astonishingly talented artist giving us the most beautiful interior artwork and panel layouts I have ever laid my eyes on, every page or spread can be hung as individual masterpieces, I want this guy drawing more comics, I would love to see his unique paneling style done with other characters. I am loving Batwoman, I read issue #1-11 in one sitting, I had to see what happened next issue after issue, it is that compelling, never have I become so quickly personally intrigued in a characters life.

Now the problem with this New 52 book, like Green Lantern and Batman Incorporated, is it continues right where the character's previous series left off not being effected by the reboot at all, so issue #1 here picks up right after the events of Batwoman's appearance in Detective Comics #854-863. So if you haven't read that 12 issue story arc then your missing a huge piece of the story that effects what's going on in the continuing narrative. The real stand out issues are #4, and #12, if you've read issue #4 then you know why, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, and #12 begins a team-up story with Wonder Woman, finally giving us another DC character done in Williams' breath-taking and mind-blowing art style, the next few issues are gonna be epic to see and read.

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost Movie Trailer

Revealed to have the release date of Dec. 28th this year, and that Freddie Prinze Jr. is indeed reprising he's role as James Vega, joining a great cast of veteran voice actors. Set during the time after Commander Shepard was thought lost and The Collectors starting to attack human colonies, we get to see what Vega did before joining Shepard's team on The Normandy in Mass Effect 3. This looks great, finally seeing the Mass Effect universe in a different medium, and hopefully the first in a beginning of more expansion in to other media, I'd love more anime movies or perhaps a sweet all CGI movie, here's hoping.

DC New 52 Reviews: Batman Beyond Unlimited #2-6 and Batman Incorporated #1-2

Batman Beyond Unlimited #2-6

This series is still going strong, the series is an excellent example of multiple stories in one book that I'm proud to pay $3.99 for. Starting in issue #3 begins a Superman Beyond story, which is a more then welcomed addition and is the perfect place to expand on the adventures of The Man of Steel in the Beyond future, as well as Lex Luthor's twisted legacy. If one issue stands out more then the others it is #5 with a stand alone short story that adds a whole new layer to Terry McGinnis origin in becoming the Dark Knight of Neo-Gotham, I was blown away, well done Adam Beechen, well done. 

Batman Incorporated #1-2

With DC's Second Wave of New 52 Titles we got another Batman title, this one continuing Grant Morrison's grand opus he started back in 2006 with "Batman and Son" which lead to Batman's apparent death, his return, and then creation of Batman Incorporated. So basically if you haven't read the last 9 hardcovers worth of Batman stories written by Morrison you'll have no idea what is going on in these issues or who some of the characters are, but if you have then you have been waiting for this for 8 months. Batman is still trying to figure out exactly how powerful of an organization Leviathan is and how far their influence reaches and what their plans are for himself, Gotham, and the world when an assassination order is put out for the current Boy Wonder. Chris Burnham did a few issues of the previous Incorporated series, his style is very similar to Frank Quitely's but not as overly surface detailed, making him the perfect artist to be paired with Morrison's continuing mega story, which I can't wait see run it's course.

Star Wars: Detours Trailer

Holy Poo-Doo! The long rumored animated TV show from Seth Green is at last revealed, bringing along he's fellow comedy creators of Robot Chicken fame and sounds like most of the same voice actors used in Star Wars skits, that's a plus. This looks fricking hilarious, set between the prequels and the original trilogy, prime ground for interesting comedic scenarios with characters from from both eras. My favorite bits are definitely gonna be anything with The Emperor and Darth Vader, and I must have the MP3 of that Star Wars Main Theme Dance song at the end, can't wait to hear when this is going to air. 

DC New 52 Reviews: Batman #3-12 & Batman and Robin #1-8

Batman #3-12

I don't know what more I can say about writer Scott Snyder's and artist Greg Capullo's run on Batman that I didn't already say in my review for the first two issues, other then to state that this book right here is the best series coming out of DC right now, and is my #1 absolute favorite New 52 title. This creative team along with the Court of Owls/Night of The Owls story is without a doubt gonna go down in history as one of Batman's must-read greats. The story has everything from a super secret organization that not even Batman himself knew about very nearly almost killing him to seeing Batman letting loose with some lethal ferocity against unkillable enemies, and not to mention some freaking awesome revelations and edge of your seat action in issues #10 and 11, if you missed the individual single issues then definitely pick up the hardcovers, you will not regret it.

Batman and Robin #1-8

In the ranking of all four Batman title released in the first wave of New 52's, Batman and Robin is a solid #2 under the self-titled book, brought to us by the writing and drawing team of Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason of previous Green Lantern Corps fame. I've got to say Gleason is one the top three guys currently drawing Batman right now, up there with Greg Capullo and Jim Lee, kind of reminds you of the ol' Legends of The Dark Knight style back in the early 90's. I'm really loving DC's new decision about writers "not writing for the trade", basically telling them their stories don't need to perfectly fit in 6 issues which sometimes stretches or rushes a story's pace but are now allowed to be told in less or more issues, which with 8 issues for the opening story arc is paced perfectly, and didn't feel stretched or rushed at all. Tomasi gives us a personal and emotional tale of fathers, sons, murder and revenge for the dynamic duo with the sudden arrival of an old rival from Bruce's past comes to turn Damian away from his father's teachings, a great read that had me read all 8 issues back to back.

DC New 52 Reviews: Aquaman #4-11 & Batgirl #1-10

Aquaman #4-11 

Geoff Johns is great writer, he doesn't destroy, erase, or ignore, he adds to a characters past, just like he did and is still doing on he's Green Lantern run. Along with getting to know a previous team of powerful individuals Arthur was with when he was younger we're also getting new bits on the origin of Black Mantra's hatred for Aquaman, and where he got his trident from. It also looks like we may not be done with the creatures from The Trench, which may be connected to the original sinking of Atlantis, can't wait for issue 12.

Batgirl #1-10

Barbra Gordan returning as Batgirl was controversial to say the least, yes we would let a little more explanation then "a clinic in South Africa" for her miraculous recovery, perhaps in the Zero issue coming next month, but I am really enjoying Gail Simone's excellent writing and Ardian Syaf wonderful art. If it was any other writer the return of Barbra to the cowl could of been a highly boycotted catastrophe, but DC knew what they were doing and gave it to a writer who knows Barbra Gordan extremely well, which I think helped softened the blow for a lot of nay-sayers. I mean we're just about a year in to the original Batgirl's return, and look's like Simone is just getting started, no only do we have the mystery of Barbra's mother's return to Gotham and Barbra's life but we're also seeing James Gordan Jr., her psychotic brother last seen in the final issues of Detective Comics before the reboot, is on the loose again as well, I'm hooked.

DC New 52 Review: Action Comics #8-12

Over the last four months since my last reviews I have tracked down and read even more of DC's New 52 titles. As of right I have collected and currently keeping up monthly with 25 of them. This is the first in a new series of reviews of what I read up to now, starting alphabetically from Action Comics to Worlds' Finest.

Action Comics #8-12

Issue 8 was a great conclusion to the Brainiac story arc, overall an excellent Superman story, with also gives us new origins for Steel, Metallo and Brainiac himself. After saving Metropolis and explaining that he is an alien but was raised on Earth the city now accepts him as their guardian. #9 was a filler story with the African-American Superman of Earth-23, last seen during the Final Crisis, a pretty good Supes Vs. Lex Luthor almost Silver Age-ish tale. Numbers 10 through 12 is the story of Superman giving up his identity of Clark Kent, now when not Superman he's Johnny Clark of the Metropolis Fire Department, where he can use his powers to save people without anyone noticing, not a bad story but I don't like how easily he just drops the name he's gone by most of his life and the career he worked to get.

If your any kind of Superman fan then you know it was his upbringing in Smallville by simple farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent that installed in him his kindness, compassion, and values, and everything Superman is beyond his powers is because of that upbringing as Clark Kent. New version of Superman or not I just don't think Clark would of or could of given up his name and journalist life just to have it pointed out to him by Batman that Clark did as much good for the world as Superman. Still Action Comics is the better Superman comic compared to his self-titled run, I love the new take on Captain Comet, and thought Superman's Super-medical education & Super-surgery was one of the coolest fricking things I ever seen him do, can't wait to see where this 5th Dimension stuff goes too.

Initiative War Machine Review

My second comic based War Machine 6in. action figure, and the third made so far, the first original Marvel Legend was his classics 90's Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, and the second being a repaint variant of Modular Armor Iron Man from a Marvel Legends 2-pack that's a homage to his Marvel Vs. Capcom game appearances. This armor here Rhodey wore after the Super Hero Civil War during his time as an instructor of young heroes for The Initiative. Other then his legs and his upper arms reused from Inferno Armor Iron Man he is made of mostly completely new molded parts such as his entire torso, forearms, shoulder pads, and head.
















Thanks to two swivel arms built in to his torso his shoulder mounted weapons can aim forward or be tilted back for non-combat situations or in-flight deployment, which are each connected to his forearm attached weapons via removable soft plastic cables. Every Iron Man figure comes with some kind of launcher that shoots a plastic missile, War Machine was given the decency to have his incorporated in to his design as his left shoulder cannon instead as useless separate pack in. I freaking love the paint on his non-white armor pieces, it's this awesome gunmetal black with very light silver metallic sprinkling on it which with his leg fins, torso armor desing, and unique shaped shoulder pads come together to give a sleek stealth aircraft design to him which is perfect for a guy called War Machine.

Another cool paint app is the green lights on the weapons, with the over-spray looking like the light is illuminating the metal around it. Not 100% comic book accurate but Hasbro really went out of their way to give us a outstanding action figure while doing their best to recreate the specific armor, an accomplishment I applaud. I really hope other Iron Man fans and Marvel Legends collector found this guy to add to their collection, and he doesn't become as rare as the ML 2-pack variant Modular Armor War Machine that's still on my checklist to find one day.

Mass Effect 3: Leviathan DLC Trailer

Yay! More Mass Effect to play. Thank you Bioware, thank you so much. I still haven't fully forgiven you for the crappy ending extended or not, but this is a start, and hopefully not the last DLC mission. Wonder if this mission adds anything to the ending? Can not wait.

Marvel Universe Future Foundation 3-Pack Review

After the apparent death of the Fantastic Four's Human Torch Johnny Storm, Reed Richards decided to gather a group of highly intelligent individuals whose goal it was to build a better future for all of humanity called the Future Foundation. This Marvel Universe three pack is a variant set of the regular Fantastic Four release, here repainted to resemble their current costumes. The major attractor to either version of the set is it is currently the only offering of the Marvel Universe scale Invisible Woman, a new head sculpt on the current most used female body mold.

Mr. Fantastic also gets a brand new head sculpt, but instead of his previous original short body he's got a repaint of the Black Suit Spider-Man body, which I think is perfect for him, I even found a great pose to put him in. The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing is merely a repaint of his single carded release albeit with a closed left fist from his Secret Wars 2-pack version, not completely comic book accurate as he should have a tank-top on, something I would of loved to see Hasbro to do as a soft plastic piece. Then there is the H.E.R.B.I.E. accessory, to me a addition I could of lived without, don't get me wrong he's greatly sculpted and very nicely painted but I just don't care for him, he's too big in my opinion to fit in the Marvel Universe figures so I put him in with my Marvel Legends Fantastic Four display.
















Another cool thing to come out of the three-pack set is the awesome Kirby Krackle cardboard background you can see I used for these photos, I am always looking for great backgrounds to take my figure photos in front of and cardboard trays form boxsets are always great go-to's. I can't wait to get Future Foundation Spider-Man, who should be out soon to complete the main team of four. If your a fan of the Future Foundation good luck finding this set, since it is the variant set it is a bit harder to find then the regular version, that's why I bought it without hesitation when I say it.

SDCC'12 Standouts Pt.2: More Marvel, DC, and MotU

All right sorry for the delay, here's is the other part of my personal favorite unveils of SDCC'12.

Marvel Universe:

90's Rogue! Yes! Can not wait to get this 3-pack, Longshot is a plus, don't mind the Wolverine at least it a mold I don't already have. Wonder if Cyclops is the first in more X-Babies to come.

Marvel Select:

VENOM! Coming out in January next year we are getting the original Eddie Brock Venom, an according to a press release with photo he'll be coming packed with multiple interchangeable heads and hands to display him with. Definitely a must own for me.

DC Universe Signature Collection:

Finally being made available as a Matty Collector Club Infinite Earths monthly exclusive available in May 2013 next year, the long fan demand Wally West Flash. Now we just need 90's original costume Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and long haired harpoon hand Aquaman and we can complete the Morrison-era JLA.

Watchmen:

Wow! Something I thought would be cool, but never thought would happen has happened, DC Universe Classics scale and style Watchmen. My only dislike is only one figure is released every other month in 2013 thru Matty Collector, so it'll take toward the end of the year to get all six main characters, talk about dragging it out.  

Masters of The Universe:

Some cool figures revealed, but the only real surprise for me was seeing Keldor's/Skeletor's split-blade sword from the 2000 MotU series made in the "Classics" style coming out in a Weapons Pak in October. Also in the set will be Man-At-Arms' 2000 series blaster to give him an additional weapon to his arsenal.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

 

epic adj

1: extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope

epic noun
1: a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero
2: a work of art (as a novel or drama) that resembles or suggests an epic

Epic! The Dark Knight Rises is the epic conclusion to director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, and is one of the most epic movies I have ever seen that not only completely meets the definition of the word, but also sets the bar on how to end a trilogy, that one last tale that connects all three parts in becoming a full circle. Genuinely one of the greatest movies I have ever seen or will ever see in my entire life, I have never before been so emotionally invested in a movie from beginning to end, when the credits rolled I was literally choked-up, physically unable to speak, and nearly on the verge of having tears run down my face. I mean the closet I can attest this film to is a religious experience, this final story touched my mind, body, and soul, and will forever hold very special meaning to me for the rest of my life.

Each and every actor in this movies is phenomenal, because it is through their character's journeys that we witness the destruction, the chaos, the pain, and the struggle to rise above those things be it physically or philosophically. Tom Hardy's Bane was everything I could of hoped for, I was thoroughly impressed with every nuance of his portrayal and couldn't ask for a better page to screen translation. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle who is miraculously never once called Catwoman, gives the best live action representation of the character ever, and does it without clawed hands, a whip, cat-like movements, or meowing, instead gives us a smart, capable, and motivated woman who may not be very law abiding but has a strong moral core.

The true standout star, the absolute greatest scene stealer is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's John Blake, who's journey and evolution is just as important and at the center of the narrative as Bruce Wayne's is. I do have to say I highly enjoyed that this is the most comic influenced of Nolan's trilogy, taking ques from or sharing similarities with storylines like The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, Legacy, and No Man's Land, some intentional and others more likely by coincidence. Nolan gave us mind-blowing character reveals, perhaps immensely predicted by many but more then likely complete shocks to a lot of movie-goers.

Now this movie is to be held up as a masterpiece, a history making prime example of cinema, but can not and should not be compared to any other blockbusters such as it's predecessor The Dark Knight or Marvel's current winning superhero achievement The Avengers, because it is a complete different kind of film. Avengers may hold the title of the greatest super-hero movie right now, but The Dark Knight Rises is not a super-hero movie, like what Batman strives to become and succeeds in doing so, it is a modern legend, a mighty tale of a hero's deeds that will transcend time and inspire others not just in the film but also in the real world. My highest praise and endless gratitude to Christopher Nolan for his astonishing achievement, for he has given us something that we never thought was possible, a satisfying ending to Batman crime fighting career, truly something we will  never see anywhere else, be it in the comics or a future movie, so that is a major accomplishment in on it self.