Geek News Roundup for 12/15/09 -- Dead, Then Awake
Yeah, it's late again. We're not permanently moving it to Tuesday, in case you were wondering.
It turns out Bruce Wayne isn't dead after all! Who knew? After "killing" him off late last year, DC Comics has now announced that a comic series that will start in April 2010 detailing the events of Bruce Wayne's journey lost through time. The first comic will start him off as Caveman/Viking Batman while trying to find his way back to the present in Gotham City. It's planned to be a six issue mini-series, with a different art team handling each issue. What you see above are sketches for the first issue, illustrated by Chris Sprouse. Fans are anticipating it, and it certainly has potential.
Mass Effect 2 is only a little over a month away at this point, and Bioware has been constantly cranking the hype machine to remind fans of what they liked about the first game so much, and to get them excited about reentering that world again in late January. One of their most recent announcements details the voice cast, and to say it's stellar is an understatement. Amidst the long list of actors and actresses, chances are there's someone you know there. The cast ranges from Martin Sheen to popular sci-fi actress Tricia Helfer. Keith David also returns from the previous game.
Meanwhile, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight fans were (or are) probably disappointed to learn that CW4Kids has cancelled the show, according to one of the actors Twitter feed. What's most startling about this is that they cancelled it when it only had two episodes left to air, which probably speaks volumes about how low the ratings actually were. Said last two episodes will apparently only be streamed online.
You may have heard about The Princess and the Frog and how it returns Disney to the era of making 2D films. But what about the future? It seems that this movie wasn't the only one they had in mind, as their future plans for hand-drawn movies has been revealed. It appears the next focus for Disney will be The Snow Queen, in terms of hand-drawn movies. True to form, the company will still continue to release CG films, which have also been pretty good as of late.
Anyone who has even a passing interest in video games knows that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a big seller last month. But precisely how well did it sell? Well, just around six million copies, which is definitely quite a bit. Right behind the duo of this game on the NPD's software sales charts (duo meaning both the PS3 and 360 version, of course), was New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Apparently, this Call of Duty thing is pretty big! Not big enough to give the PC version dedicated servers, though. But it's great that six million of you are playing the game that Time says sends the message that "video games have something intelligent to say about contemporary military conflicts."
(Really, that quote is ridiculous.)
If you've been looking to listen to what was subjectively some of the best music made in the last decade, Rolling Stone has created a list of what they think are the top 100 best albums released in the in the last ten years. An interesting way to create a list, as it also includes samples for said albums as well. Yeah, it may be hard to believe, but there were apparently 100 good albums in the last decade. Well, that or they felt they had to fill in the entire list.
Image courtesy of DC Comics, shockingly.
It turns out Bruce Wayne isn't dead after all! Who knew? After "killing" him off late last year, DC Comics has now announced that a comic series that will start in April 2010 detailing the events of Bruce Wayne's journey lost through time. The first comic will start him off as Caveman/Viking Batman while trying to find his way back to the present in Gotham City. It's planned to be a six issue mini-series, with a different art team handling each issue. What you see above are sketches for the first issue, illustrated by Chris Sprouse. Fans are anticipating it, and it certainly has potential.Mass Effect 2 is only a little over a month away at this point, and Bioware has been constantly cranking the hype machine to remind fans of what they liked about the first game so much, and to get them excited about reentering that world again in late January. One of their most recent announcements details the voice cast, and to say it's stellar is an understatement. Amidst the long list of actors and actresses, chances are there's someone you know there. The cast ranges from Martin Sheen to popular sci-fi actress Tricia Helfer. Keith David also returns from the previous game.
Meanwhile, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight fans were (or are) probably disappointed to learn that CW4Kids has cancelled the show, according to one of the actors Twitter feed. What's most startling about this is that they cancelled it when it only had two episodes left to air, which probably speaks volumes about how low the ratings actually were. Said last two episodes will apparently only be streamed online.
You may have heard about The Princess and the Frog and how it returns Disney to the era of making 2D films. But what about the future? It seems that this movie wasn't the only one they had in mind, as their future plans for hand-drawn movies has been revealed. It appears the next focus for Disney will be The Snow Queen, in terms of hand-drawn movies. True to form, the company will still continue to release CG films, which have also been pretty good as of late.
Anyone who has even a passing interest in video games knows that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a big seller last month. But precisely how well did it sell? Well, just around six million copies, which is definitely quite a bit. Right behind the duo of this game on the NPD's software sales charts (duo meaning both the PS3 and 360 version, of course), was New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Apparently, this Call of Duty thing is pretty big! Not big enough to give the PC version dedicated servers, though. But it's great that six million of you are playing the game that Time says sends the message that "video games have something intelligent to say about contemporary military conflicts."
(Really, that quote is ridiculous.)
If you've been looking to listen to what was subjectively some of the best music made in the last decade, Rolling Stone has created a list of what they think are the top 100 best albums released in the in the last ten years. An interesting way to create a list, as it also includes samples for said albums as well. Yeah, it may be hard to believe, but there were apparently 100 good albums in the last decade. Well, that or they felt they had to fill in the entire list.
Image courtesy of DC Comics, shockingly.
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A few preliminary criticisms of the top 100 list: it was decided upon by people in the music industry, so I don't know if the list represents the personal biases of whoever voted. Example, did they just choose albums their own label produced?
Also, I don't see "Ocean Eyes" or "Maybe I'm Dreaming" by Owl City, "The Tension & The Spark" and "This Delicate Thing We've Made" by Darren Hayes, or "Home" by Angela Aki on the list, so it's definitely personal opinion (as are my picks). Also, some of the Album Of The Year winners seemed to be placed lower than I'd have thought they'd be. Weird.
I hope that Disney does a good job with The Snow Queen.
And regarding Batman: time travel ruins everything. :)
I don't know how I totally missed that people in the music industry picked them. They're more "subjective" than I thought! Don't say I didn't warn you or anything. ;)
I'm glad Disney's actually making something else hand-drawn. Thank goodness The Princess and the Frog wasn't a one time thing; it's doing OK at the box office, though not as well as their CG movies, but right in line with previous animated movies. I hope they acknowledge CG isn't the only future.
It was only a matter of time before Bruce came back. The new series has potential! But the question is if they'll realize it. And that makes me skeptical.
By the way, I remembered that I forgot something...
You should make your own top 10 albums list (since I doubt that any single person could come up with a good 100 album list). :)
I don't think I listen to enough music to come up with a top 10 list! And man is it hard to come up with that when there are always two songs on an album that stick out because of how underwhelming they are compared to the entire package.
Suddenly, I have a new level of respect for list makes. That sounds frustrating!