May 07

Comics That Piss Me Off: 5/7/08

Written by Mat No Comments »

This week was a pretty big week…well, at least in terms of charges to my credit card.  My total bill come out pretty close to $40 and, strangely enough, didn’t include any trades or graphic novels at all.  An unusal thing for sure because I almost always find some sort of higher priced book to pick up. 

1. Secret Invasion #2
2. Mighty Avengers #13
3. Conan #50
4. Rann-Thanagar Holy War #1
5. Avengers-Invaders #1
6. War That Time Forgot #1
7. American Dream #1

With that out of the way, let’s get on to the comic reviews!

Secret Invasion #2 sucks as bad as Secret Invasion #1At the top of my list and soon at the bottom of my trashcan, Secret Invasion #2 by Brian Michael Bendis and Lenil Francis Yu.  Lenil’s artwork on the series continues to be flat, uneven and very awkward.  I’m not sure what Marvel was thinking by hiring him to draw a book where multiple versions of characters are appearing in and out of costume because everyone he draws looks the same.  It doesn’t help that Yu isn’t the strongest storyteller around as the book quickly becomes very confusing — I’d go so far as to call it unreadable. 

Speaking of storytelling, have I warmed up to the series after 2 issues?  Not at all.  The crossover “event” seems to be nothing more than Marvel attempting to fix a lot of its character and continuity mistakes and missteps over the past 10 years.  Truthfully, they’re forgetting about their biggest mistake of all…putting Joe Quesada in charge as editor-in-chief.  Of course, allowing Bendis to come on board as a writer is a very close second.  Hopefully we’ll eventually find out everyone is a skrull and pretend none of it ever happened.

Secret Invasion has replaced Secret Wars 2 as my nominee for worst company crossover of all time.  It’s nice to see Marvel finally answering the question of how badly one company can fuck itself up. Read More »

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Comics That Piss Me Off
May 06

Dinner and a Movie: Iron Man Movie Review

Written by Mat No Comments »

The Iron Man movie poster...I'm buying one for my office!Iron Man
Directed by:
Jon Favreau
Screenplay by: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway
Created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Shaun Tobb, Clark Gregg, John Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson and Stan Lee
Running Time: 126 minutes
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 2008

On May 2, 2008, Iron Man premiered here in the US and went on to pull in over $200 million worldwide.  As a lifelong comic book geek who just happens to have every issue of Iron Man through the mid 1990s (starting with Tales From Suspense #39 from back in March 1963), I must admit that I have been dreading the release of this film since I first heard about it a few years ago.

While I am a big fan of both Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr., everything I saw or heard about this flick screamed “pure cheese” to me for some reason.  Every still I saw or report I read gave me horrible flashbacks to earlier crappy Marvel movies like Daredevil, Electra, the Punisher and that God-awful Generation X made-for-TV flick from the mid-90s.  I had resigned myself to yet another horrible comic book film with my only hope being that, maybe, somehow, it might not be as bad as Catwoman.

After standing in a long opening day line and being forced to sit in a crowded theater, I have to say I have never been more glad to be proven wrong in my entire life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hx6TEqrzHU

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Dinner and a Movie
May 05

Game On! Top 10 Comic Book Games

Written by Mat 6 Comments »

In honor of the Iron Man movie released this past weekend, I would like to dedicate this episode of Game On to the best comic book video games of all time.  Unfortunately, the new Iron Man game will not be on the list.  My quick review of the game is: they did a great job with the look and controls of Iron Man himself, but the game itself didn’t seem to be as well developed.  The environments and enemies were a bit of a let down and, after a few hours of playing, I really wish they had paid Robert Downey Jr to record a few more one-liners because the limited number they had in the game got old real fast. 

That being said, it might be worth a rental from Gamefly if you enjoyed the movie like I did (more on that tomorrow).

Here were go with the Nifty Nerd’s Top 10 Comic Book Video Games of All Time:

Capcom's Punisher Arcade Game is the #10 Top Comic Book Video Game10.  Punisher - Capcom (1993):  Easily one of the coolest arcade side-scrollers produced by Capcom, the Punisher was built around game play similar to that of the Final Fight series and Capcom’s other comic book arcade release at the time, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs.  In this arcade gem, you were able to play either the Punisher or a cigar-smoking Nick Fury as you fought your way through six levels of mayhem and destruction.  Wielding guns, knives, swords, bats and grenades, you encountered faces familiar from the pages of Marvel Comics, including Bushwacker, Bone Breaker and the Kingpin…oh, and don’t forget a whole gaggle of canon-fodder goons, thugs and ninjas. 

The Punisher arcade game was great fun to play and was loaded with some truly spiffy comic book style cut scenes.  Now, there was a port of the game to Sega’s Genesis/MegaDrive console, but it really wasn’t the same due to some silly censorship.  If you can find one of the old arcade cabinets for sale online, or have an X-Arcade Mame Cabinet, Capcom’s Punisher game is a ton of fun. Read More »

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Game On!
Apr 25

Trapped in the 80s: The Transformers vs Gobots War

Written by Mat 1 Comment »

The Transformers rock!If you were a kid in the 80s, then you were following the battle between two of the world’s super powers at the time.  No, I’m not referring to the US versus the Soviet Union.  There was something BIGGER going on and it threatened to tear families and friendships apart even more than the US Civil War.  That’s right, I’m talking about the battle between the two greatest shape-shifting robots ever created - the Trainsformers and the GoBots. 

The Gobots sucked.If you were a fan of robot toys in the 80s then 1984 has got to have been one of the greatest years of your life.  In 1984 both the Gobots and the Transformers both made their way to toyshelves across the US and I for one experienced my first erection.  Although I enjoyed both lines of toys, I had an immediate preference for the Transformers from the very beginning.  Their good guy vs bad guy branding and statistic cards on the back of the toy packaging reminded me of the GI Joe figures I was already buying and made me feel like I was taking part in some storyline greater than myself.  To me, the Gobots were cheap and nowhere near as cool. Read More »

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Trapped in the 80s
Apr 23

Comics That Piss Me Off: 4/23/08

Written by Mat No Comments »

It’s another exciting week here at the Nifty Nerd and we’ve got a new episode of Comics That Piss Me Off to go along with new comic day for the week of April 23, 2008.  This week we’ve got some good stuff and some bad stuff, and a new Modern Master volume all ready to become the latest addition to my “bathroom reading” stack of books.

Let’s see what wonders are waiting in this week’s buy pile:

1. Mighty Avengers #12
2. Hulk #3
3. Number of the Beast #2
4. The Spirit #16
5. Justice League of America #20
6. Modern Masters Volume 16: Mike Allred

The Mighty Avengers #12 baffled me by its craptitude.First up, Mighty Avengers #12 by Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev.  I am a regular reader of the Mighty Avengers, in spite of it being a fairly poorly written book, and I have to say this new issue confused me.  I say this because as I read the issue I kept flipping back to the cover to make sure it was an issue of the Mighty Avengers and not its companion book, the New Avengers.  Bendis must have been confused himself as he wrote the book because it features not a single member of the Mighty Avengers, and focuses almost completely on the renegade team and Nick Fury.  This book is even worse than regular Marvel books which require you to have read every previous issue of a book for the past 5 years…this book requires that you have read every issue of some other series.  Marvel really needs to get rid of Brian Bendis if they want to open their books up to new readers…or open the books up to good writing. Read More »

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Comics That Piss Me Off
Apr 21

Game On! The X-Arcade Machine Cabinet

Written by Mat No Comments »

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I am an absolute arcade game addict. To this day, I love going in to a good arcade and playing video games on an upright cabinet. There is just something ingrained about arcades in my DNA. Heck, standing next to my desk is a 4-player Konami X-Men arcade for 1992…I can literally spin my chair around right now and play me a game of X-men whenever I want to take a break.

Having a home arcade is one of the coolest things in the universe.Nothing is more satisfying than standing at an arcade cabinet and playing a video game. Unfortunately, while the old-school games are fairly cheap to get (anywhere from $100 up to $2500 or so, depending on the game), the full-sized cabinets take up a lot of space and, if you’re like me, most homes don’t have enough room for every game you want to get.

Lucky for all of us, the folks at X-Arcade have the answer to our prayers: the X-Arcade Machine Cabinet. And that, my friends, is what arrived fully assembled on my doorstep last week, a present from my wife. My wife is awesome! Read More »

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Game On!, Nerd Stuff
Apr 20

Nerd Week in Review: 4/19/08

Written by Mat No Comments »

Some interesting things in the world of Nerddom went on this week.  A sex tape, a Youtube divorce announcement, tons of comic book releated film and game projects, and G4TV gets stoned…wait, that’s an announcement?  From the look of their recent programming, I’d say they’ve been high there for a while now.

And awaaaaaay we go!

Sex from Beyond the Grave!

New Marilyn Monroe sex tape uncovered!Hollywood’s latest sex scandal may turn out to be one of its oldest.  That’s right, a 15 minute, 16mm reel of film has been uncovered which shows Marilyn Monroe administering some oral-loving on an unknown man whose face was just off camera.  In the early 60s, J Edgar Hoover spent weeks trying to proove the unknown man was either John F Kennedy or Robert Kennedy.  Whoever it was, I have to give him props…if it had been me in the reel, the footage would only have been about a minute and a half long.

The recovered footage was sold to an unnamed businessman for $1.5 million dollars, who said he would not be releasing the tape out of respect for Marilyn.  I’d say that means we have about 6 months before it hits YouTube. Read More »

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Nerd News, Nerd Week in Review
Apr 18

Trapped in the 80s: Top 10 Spank-It Movies of the 1980s

Written by Mat No Comments »

“Wax on…Wax off.”

Being born at the end of 1972, I was in the midst of full blown puberty through most of the 1980s. And, as a nerd with no real social graces of any kind, I used to do what every other teenage boy with cable did at the time…I would sneak out to our family living room to watch the marvels of late night cable programming. I would turn down the tv as low as I could in hopes of not waking up the parental units and, in what I thought to be sheer genius, I would cover both the television set and my head with a quilt to keep the light leaking out to a minimum.

Perhaps it was the paranoia of getting caught, and perhaps it was just watching way too many teen sex comedies, but my fond memories of my late night adventures in the 80s are much more exciting than any hardcore porn you can download online. I probably should have classified that under “too much information.” But, if the title of this post didn’t scare you off, I’m guessing a little quilt confession won’t either.

What I bring you today, my loyal readers, is my top 10 list of the ultimate spank-it movies of the 80s. They have have damaged my eyes and put hair on my palms, but they also helped me reach manhood…sometimes 2 or 3 times a night.


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Trapped in the 80s
Apr 17

New Nifty Nerd T-Shirt: Frankie Say Fuck Off!

Written by Mat No Comments »

Hey there.  I’ve got a bit of shameless self-promotion to throw at you right now.  We’ve got a brand new Nifty Nerd t-shirt from the fine folks at Cafe Press.  The new shirt, one you’ll be seeing my wear in a couple of upcoming “Trapped in the 80s” videos, is our “Frankie Say Fuck Off” shirt.  Now, before any faux-80s fans jump up and proclaim, “Hey…shouldn’t that be ‘Frankie Says’??”  No. It shouldn’t…please follow the advice of the shirt.

Frankie Say Fuck Off T-Shirt...buy now!
Click image above for ordering info.  Frankie Say Fuck Off T-Shirt, Buy now for $11.99

Check out this great, retro-80s shirt and pick one up for as low as $11.99.  It’s a lot of fun and lets people know exactly where to go.

-Mat N., The Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com

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Nerd Stuff
Apr 16

Comics That Piss Me Off: 4/16/08

Written by Mat No Comments »

Yo, yo, Yoda!

You know, week in and week out I take a bullet right in my bank account for you, my loyal readers.  It’s true.  Every week I go in to my local comic book store (Comic Cellar, off of Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, CA) and I pick up a lot of books I don’t normally read…and, inevitably, I wind up picking up a number of books I know in advance are going to suck ass.  That’s right, I waste my money so you don’t have to.

Let’s take a look at what is in this week’s buy pile:

1. Brave and the Bold #12
2. Legacy of Doom #1
3. Captain Action #0
4. Superman #675
5. Dream War #1
6. Captain America #37
7. Wonderlost #2

Definitely a mixed bag for me this week. Read More »

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Comics That Piss Me Off
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