Comic Review: Ultimates Disassembled! (Spoilers)

Artist: Giandomenico
Writer: Fialkov

There are two kinds of master mind evil plans. There are the bad guys that just want to heckle the good guy and cause a lot of damage. Then there are the bad guys that think they are saving the world, but are doing it through endless destruction and murder. Reed Richards and The Hulk are two such villains. Reed Richards is a psycho mastermind that thinks the destruction of the Ultimates and the collection of the Infinity Gems will save the Earth from some far off destruction. All this is orchestrated by Kang, a mysterious alien creature that is pulling the strings.


Overkill!

Fialkov proves that weird, dark and twisted makes a much better story. That is why Reed Richards is the kind of social path that you absolutely love to hate (even though he is stopping world hunger). Then you have his guard dog, The Hulk, who is an absolute threat. I love a good story where the forces of evil are unstoppable. Within the first few issues, Captain America is taken out of commission, Thor gets his head handed to him, Tony Stark is lobotomized and killed and Sue Storm is given enough psychological trauma from an abusive ex-husband to warrant years of counseling. The build up of these issues is making huge ripples in the Ultimate universe. This is the same universe that killed Green Goblin, made Cap President and made mutants an invention in Canada. Fialkov is adding to the misery of this dark world and it will take a miracle to resolve the evil powers of Reed Richard's takeover.



Just a little off the top.



Score: 8/10

Pencils: * *

Story: * *

Suspense: * *

Color: *

Characters: *


Final: A keeper of a story...

The Ultimates: Reconstruction 20-24

Perhaps the most underrated series of Marvel is The Ultimates universe.  This is the alternate universe that killed off the Hulk, made Reed Richards a bad guy and discovered that mutants were created in a lab in Canada.

With such great and twisty plot reveals like that one would be excited to dive into the Ultimates and peer at the Marvel Universe that no one really knows.

In the Reconstruction era, America has been devastated and only President Captain America can put the pieces back together to help the nation unite.  It was just discovered that Nick Fury is an undercover agent for Hydra and the governor of Florida is assembling a dooms day weapon.

Marvel has one rule for the Ultimates Universe and it has been followed quite strictly.  The universe has to appear adult, realistic and dark.  It is written like a Norman Rockwell painting.

I was excited to dive into my first Ultimates story arc and get sucked into the world of the "Other Marvel."  This is a world where men acted like men and teenage drama was replaced with super hero adults dealing with real world problems.

What I got instead was a pretty bread and butter story.  The struggle between Hawkeye and Fury was boring and did not lead to any excitement.  The unleashing of the evil Florida Governor led to some other hit and miss stories.  They introduced Power Man, Vision, Tigra, Black Knight and Quake into the universe, giving a potential spin off series with the West Coast Ultimates, but that side story got unresolved.  The Writer, Sam Humphries, felt like his story was missing something exciting and instead of adding a 5 headed demon, he kept it low tech.  Even the resolution of the world altering problem seemed corny and out of place--something even the Ghostbusters wouldn't stoop to.

The Penciling in issue #20 is by far the most budget art for any of the characters.  Captain America looked like he was laminated and his head was too lopsided for his mask.  The art gradually increased over the series and the inclusion of new villains made it interesting, but ultimately this universe had a dry run with uninspiration.

The whole thing tasted like oatmeal, with seldom brown sugar moments.

Luckily, Ultimates: Disassembled brings back Reed Richards as the main villain.

Upside: This universe's Tigra looks less like a prostitute

Android Game Central: The MOGA Controller

It was July 23rd when I got the package from Amazon.com. I got a refurbished package from a dealer. I was excited that my phone of potential could actually play Gameloft games like a portable console.

 The controller was a sleek plastic case with a hard rubber back. It was small and the hands would be getting cramped easily, but the mini design played to its portability. Two mini discs made up the thumb sticks and the face buttons made a plastic click when pressed. Two AAA batteries were inserted into the back of the set and the Bluetooth was turned on. The controller synced up immediately with the Galaxy S II. It looked like the controller was going to work out quite well. After 3 hours I had played NOVA 3, Modern Combat 4, Dead Trigger, Pac-Man and Dungeon Hunter 4 like a normal human being would play a PSP.

 I felt like I had accomplished something. The game library has over 60 games and growing. It is one of the easiest libraries to access with a controller without having to root the phone or do any special customizations. This all seemed to be going quite well.

 And then I tried again.
 I tried syncing with the Galaxy S II a second time within the next two days. The MOGA paired up with my phone immediately, but then lost the connection immediately. I tried pairing it multiple times and finally it stuck after a good five minutes. In the next week the MOGA was absolutely useless to Bluetooth scanners. It would not show up on the tablet, the Bluetooth had a horrible time syncing up and confirming a connection.
The most probable cause is the batteries dying. If 2 fresh AAA batteries promises 3 hours of gameplay than this controller has a major hassle. Even the 6 AA battery Game Gear had a longer lifespan. What was once a cheap and competent and alternative to a Sony PSP became the most difficult peripheral to manage.

 It is tools like this that make me believe the Android is not ready to be taken seriously as a game alternative.

Android Games That Don't Suck: Crazy Snowboard

Game: Crazy Snowboard
Publisher: Ezone

When a game is free on Android it means 1 of 2 things.  1) You can't win unless you shell out some major bucks or 2) It is just a spam bot waiting to destroy your system.  Sometimes, a game comes along that is neither of those things.  Crazy Snowboard is one of the few.

Crazy Snowboard is free, but you have to put up with some ads that pop up.  You can pay the 1.99 to get the ads off, but they were not that intrusive.

Then there is the next struggle with competent Android games. Since Crazy Snowboard is neither a tower defense game nor a card building RPG then it is assumed that it has bad physics and boring gameplay.  Crazy Snowboard manages to beat to those odds.

You have a career mode where you have different missions to accomplish like collecting coins, earning a certain amount of points or knocking over snow men.  But that is only half the objective.  You also need to score points and multipliers with tricks.  You score high enough and you gain stars (the official currency of casual gamers).  Stars help you get money which can buy new boards, boarders and moves.

It is fairly easy to pull off multiple combos and spins with a flick of the thumbs.  The game's move engine is setup similar to a console snowboard game.  But if you don't like touchscreens you can set up your MOGA controller to play the game.

Not bad for a free game.  If the filling landfills of uninspired tower defense/puzzle hybrids could take a cue from Ezone's game then it wouldn't be such a diamond in the rough search for quality.