Hey-ho its another Wednesday and time for a new podcast!

This week we introduce a new segment, “Out of the Bin” where we take a look at an older game that we think deserves some extra lovin’. This week, we head to the mall to get some new duds, an Orange Julius and whack some zombies with a sledge hammer – its Dead Rising.

In this episode we discuss:

• Out of the Bin – Dead Rising
• Oscar flicks – The Reader & The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Follow-up on Episode 2 of Dollhouse
• A quick peek at Castle Crashers
• And a look at the Wolverine: Old Man Logan & Dark Avengers reviews

Feel free to leave feedback in the comments section and let us know if you have any suggestions for future “Out of the Bin” segments.

Download Episode 5 – Double Whammy

This book is also a Marvel title and is written by Mark Miller and penciled by Steve McNiven. I have been waiting for this one for some time now. Unlike the Dark Avengers I have been buying this run of Wolverine titled “Old Man Logan”. I’m not sure why, but there was a long wait from the last issue to this one and I was very excited to get it.

The concept of “Old Man Logan” is that it’s fifty years in the future. At one point all of the villains unite to take over America (yes, the rest of the world is shit and the villains only want America). They defeat the heroes and then divide America up into their own territories. Logan’s a poor farmer who, because of some untold reason, has not “popped his claws” in fifty years. He has a wife and two children, I might be wrong about the kids. There might be more or less, but who cares?

Now, after fifty years, Hawkeye seeks out Logans help to cross America. Logan agrees to this for a price because as I said before he’s a poor farmer now and needs the cash to pay off his land lords the evil Hulk Clan. In this issue Logan explains the reason why he hasn’t “popped his claws” in fifty years.

There, I think that more or less gets you up to speed.

So, lets get the good out of the way. Steve McNivens art is great. Its original and very pretty. Matter of fact, his art may be the only reason I waited so long for the latest issue of this series.

Now, I get to rip this issue a new one. The whole thing starts out with X-Mansion  being attacked by a rouges gallery of who’s who in the Marvel world of villains. At this point one gets the feeling that something corny is going to happen to explain his herolessness for fifty years because there’s a bunch of children running for cover and I thought “for Christ sake, is killing one kid going to explain this?”  But fear not no children where harmed in the making of this comic.

Instead, it turns out that the villains where not in fact villains but Logans team mates. Huh? you might ask well, an unexpected villain has clouded Logans mind and forced him to kill all his friends who then gloats  “Did you really think you could do this alone? Take down forty super- villains? Talk about delusions of grandeur. But your friends. People who would hesitate.That’s a different matter entirely”.

This is where my first problem with this issue comes in, why would they hesitate? yeah the first couple might not know what to do but this is the mother f’n X-men we’re talking about. Someone would have tried to stop him. At the end of the day all Iceman had to do was freeze him. It just seemed to easy.It made me think that he should have killed the children instead. At least then it would seem plausible.

Next, why did it take so long to come out? Maybe there’s a reason, but this was an art driven story. The dialog is none existent. It’s not until the last quarter of the book that we actually get panel by panel dialogue. Really, the whole thing only took about five minutes to read!

This issue  seems a little anticlimactic to me. I have been enjoying this run of Wolverine and I’m sure that I’ll get the next issue, but I was disappointed in this one.

Dark Avengers #2. This title is put out by Marvel, is written by Bendis, with art by Deodato. Unfortunately for me I have to review this as a single issue because I missed out on issue 1. It was my fault, but the good people at my local comic store are trying to find me a copy or at the very least get me a re-print.

The concept is pretty simple as far as I can tell. Aliens (Skrulls) attacked earth, things are all upside down, Stark is guilty of… well I’m not really sure what he’s guilty of but it is alluded to in this issue that he had something to do with or didn’t do enough to stop the attack. Because of this S.H.E.I.L.D. is disbanded and a new super security group H.A.M.M.E.R. is started up headed by Osborn, of Green Goblin fame, and now has a costume that is a cross between Iron Man and Captain America and is calling himself…….(there’s not enough dots for this)….. The Iron Patriot, I kid you not.

In this issue Iron Pat is assembling his new group of Avengers, made up of super-villains who look like pre-existing heroes, to go and help out Dr. Doom. Now, maybe its just because I missed all of Secret Invasion and issue 1 of this title, but most of this didn’t make much sense to me. It wasn’t a bad read though. It was entertaining enough to keep the me turning the pages, which I guess makes it readable.

I had the same feeling reading this that I get when I turn on WWE for the first time in a long time, who’s that? Should I care what they are doing? and I’m hungry, what should I snack on?

Again, the whole thing is written very well with Osborn carrying the book and doing a great job at keeping his Avengers in line. I was at times confused about what the true intentions are of this new group. Everyone talks with that stereo typical bad guy bravado but Osborn seems to rein them in because he wants the public to see them in a positive light. I’m only to assume that this is for greater plan of his (theirs) because near the end of the book he allows Sentry Bob to rip the head off of their foe, Morgana. I’m not sure how the general public would react to that.

The art i s exceptional, I’m in awe of Mike Deodato’s use of shadows. The first two pages are probably 60% shadow and it looks great.

Matter of fact, everything about this book is good except for the supporting cast. I look at other titles that are group orientated and someone or someones usually stands out. Not this time baby. Everyone with the exception of Osborn is just blah and uninviting. At some point Venom can change his size from Peter Parkerish to Tyrannosaurus Rex size and he eats a guy. Have I been out of the comic world that long that Venom now eats people, next you’ll be telling me the Hulk is red!!!

At the end of the day, I think if you’re fan of comic book art and story telling you’ll enjoy this one. But if you’re just getting into comics as a whole, this one might confuse you.

what did you think?

Andrew