Friday, September 24, 2010

OK, this last week:

I don't think I had a single new comic this week; although that's not to say there weren't some books I'd conceivably read if they fell in my lap, even if I wouldn't pay $3.99 for 'em. Still, I got down to the Comic Book Shop since they opened some new Heroclix packs, and I wanted a Nightcrawler. Of course he's a chase, so he ran a bit more; and that costume isn't my favorite, but at least he didn't have the damn priest's collar. (I would've had to sharpie it out...) Plus, he comes with a disc of some kind! Yeah, I don't actually play Heroclix, so I couldn't tell you if he's a good piece or not; but all three of the Nightcrawler pieces for the game are on my desk at work. (Plus Man-Bat and Thor, for some reason.)

I mentioned the other stuff yesterday, but I also picked up Kevin J. Anderson's the Last Days of Krypton a bit ago. Um, at a dollar store, which isn't indicative of quality, but of some vagaries of publishing and over-printing. I'm only a quarter-way through it, and it's already a bit of a downer, since like the Titanic or the Alamo, you already know what's going to happen. That, and I keep waiting for Jor-El to slap Krypto into a rocket...actually, I wonder if Anderson's going to do a callback to Tomar-Re, the Green Lantern that tried to save Krypton. (Or was it Tomar-Tu?) Kinda doubt it, but Rann, Thanagar, and Oa have gotten shout-outs so far.

Oh, the Essential Tales of the Zombie? Not too shabby. There's some great art, primarily from Pablo Marcos, that I can't scan since I can't cram that thing into my scanner, so buy your own, why don't you? And for those of you who are tired of zombies, this is a singular Zombie, and while his origin is in voodoo, it's more about a man trying to find his soul, even though he didn't realize it was missing while he was alive.

Over at Chase Variant, there's been a couple pretty good writeups on the new G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra Duke and Spirit Iron-Knife figures, and a pretty convincing argument of a movie they strongly resemble characters from...tempting. And these figures come with the ever-popular metric assload of accessories, enough to make other lines seem like their sold in empty blister packs!

More nonsense, and lazy YouTube whatnot, after the break!

I had the misfortune of catching about ten seconds of Entertainment Tonight, where they were reporting (oh, that should be in quotes) on the outrage over Katy Perry's outfit on Sesame Street. (The Onion's AV Club has it for you, if you must.) Look, I'm not a fan of Katy Perry--I'm old, I only have the vaguest idea who she is--and I'm definitely not a fan of Elmo, but if you're a parent and this gets you worked up, then understand: I hate you, and you are exactly what's wrong with America, and read to your goddamn kids yourself. Maybe she should cover up, perhaps a burqa?

Sigh. Every so often, I think my sense of outrage is dead, or at least really sleepy, and yet here we are.

At any rate, I'm waiting for Fringe to start, so it's time to open some toys! Have a good weekend, and see you soon.

4 comments:

Rottgutt said...

Nightcrawler is a Rare (you get one Rare figure per booster), but there are two versions of him -- one with black writing on the plaque on the other side of the wall he's on and one with gold writing that says something like "world champion'. The gold plaque one is the harder one to find.

He's also one of the best figures in the Web Of Spider-Man set because he's relatively inexpensive point-wise, rather difficult to hit with a 19 defense, and if he hits a figure, he can then move (if he still has movement left) and put the figure he hit next to him when he finishes his move. So you can move your opponent's figures with him in most cases.

googum said...

Neat! Do you know how he compares to the other two Nightcrawler 'clix?

Rottgutt said...

Game-wise, the new one is definitely the best of the lot. The first Nightcrawler (the one with the sword -- he was from Clobberin' Time) had a brown square on his move so he could move and attack and a red square on his defense so he wasn't hit by attacks on a roll of 5 or 6. The new one can do all that but he also ignores terrain on the map, has a higher defense, can bring another figure with him when he moves and attacks, is stealthy (can't be shot at from range), has a blue square on his damage (so an enemy can only target him for an attack if he doesn't roll a 5 or a 6), and has that ability to drag the enemy figure back with him. He's probably one of the better figures in the game.

Price/collectible-wise, I'm not sure. The first Nightcrawler (the one with the sword) was pretty hard to get, a good figure in the game, and in a popular character so he commanded a pretty high price initially. He probably lost some value when the smokey cloud ones (from Fantastic Forces) released because he wasn't the only Nightcrawler in the game, but he was still a slightly better figure game-wise. Now... I'm really not sure. Collectors would still want him, but players would probably want the new one. And the new one is just that, new, so more people are clamoring for him. Add in his playability and I was think the new one is at least close in price to that first one.

SallyP said...

Krypton was in Tomar Re's sector. Tomar Tu was his successor. it DOES get confusing.