GAME ON

This past week has been a pretty important for console gamers everywhere–

1) Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released February 15, which I still have not gotten my anxious fingers on yet, but with a hyper combo like Deadpool’s I am simply wetting my pants sitting here typing and thinking about it. Seriously, what a great mishmash of characters this time around. (And if you’ve been reading this blog since our conception last August, you may remember MegaWoman raved about X-23’s appearance in the game)

(Hell yeah he just beat you down with his life bar and health bar)

2) Dead Island was announced the very next day (Feb. 16), which even prompted my non-video-gaming friends to send me the trailer, oohing and aahing. I mean it, 5 people sent me the trailer in one day. Either I resemble a zombie in the day-to-day or they associate me with zombie games or… T_T Regardless of what reasoning they harbored in their minds as they posted and forward the video to me in Facebook and Gmail, the trailer definitely has a cinematic (when I say cinematic I mean there’s a tinge of emotion) feel, and though I think I will check out the game when it comes out, I don’t know if I want to delve into yet ANOTHER zombie venture. Perhaps it’s because I currently feel like a zombie and have no desire for anything zombie-related. Temporary bias.

Also, any blog post titled “Game on”, in actual reference to games, needs to be followed by That “The Guild” video, as below. You can thank/hate me later when you find yourself humming this song until 5pm.

2011: A Year of Geek Movies

There are a ridiculous amount of geeky movies coming out this year.

With superheroes, fairy tales, robots, gods, aliens, vampires, gnomes, zombies, genetically engineered apes, smurfs, pirates, spies, witches, wizards, pandas…the movie selection this year is a smörgåsbord of geek topics.

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Season of the Witch: Jan 7th

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The Green Hornet: Jan 14th

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Gnomeo and Juliet: Feb 11

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I am Number Four: Feb 18th

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All Star Superman: Feb 22nd

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The Adjustment Bureau: March 4th

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Mars Needs Moms: March 11th

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Battle: Los Angeles: March 11th

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Beastly: March 18th

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Paul: March 18th

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Dylan Dog: Dead of Night: March (tentatively)

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Sucker Punch: March 25

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Super: April 1st

Starring Rainn Wilson as The Crimson Bolt, a powerless superhero who wields a wrench, it looks like it’s going to be Kick Ass level of good.

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Source Code: April 1st

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Your Highness: April 8th

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Thor: May 6th

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Priest: May 13th

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: May 20th

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Kung Fu Panda 2: May 27th

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X-Men First Class: June 3rd

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Green Lantern: Emerald Knights: June 7th

Straight to DVD animated movie about Kyle Rayner and a time-travelling Hal Jordan as they team up with the JLA and Green Arrow to fight Sinestro and Parallax.

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Super 8: June 10th

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Rise of the Apes: June 24th

Planet of the Apes prequel which shows how the apes came to rule to world, starring James Franco.

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Green Lantern: June 17th

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Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon: July 1st

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: July 15th

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Captain America: The First Avenger: July 22nd

If you don’t know what this is going to be about, shame on you.

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Cowboys and Aliens: July 29th

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The Smurfs: August 3rd

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Conan the Barbarian: August 19th

Conan”s adventures on his quest to avenge the death of his father and the slaughter of his village.

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Fright Night: August 19th

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Johnny English Reborn: September 16th

Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) tries to stop a band of assassins from killing the Chinese Premier

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Now: September 30th

A society where aging stops at 25 and the rich are immortal while the rest struggle to survive. Starring Justin Timberlake, who’s falsely accused of murder, on the run with his hostage Amanda Seyfried.

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Real Steel: October 7th

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The Thing: October 14th

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Puss in Boots: November 4th

Origins of the swashbuckling cat from the Shrek movies.

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Immortals: November 11th

3D movie where Theseus (Henry Cavill) must fight to save his people and the Greek gods from the mad King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke).

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Arthur Christmas: November 23rd

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Sherlock Holmes 2: December 16th

After how awesome the first one was, we all knew the sequel was inevitable.

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The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn: December 28th

3D motion-capture film based on the comics: Tintin’s first encounter with Captain Haddock and their adventures trying to find his ancestor’s hidden treasure.

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Tekken: Sometime in 2011

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These are trailers for the ones I’m actually likely to go see. For even more, see this io9 post.

Geek Gingerbread

I’m going to share these with you because I’m rather proud of some of them (and hopelessly embarrassed by others).

Consider it an early Christmas present with one condition: you’re not allowed to make fun of my frosting skills…or lack thereof.

Captain America

Dr. Manhattan

Spidey

Superman

ThePowerofLoveMan?

Black Canary

Sheldon Cooper's Halloween Costume

Wonder Woman

Nightwing

Batman

Not a Red Shirt

Ninjas

Pirate

33ish Ideas for Simple Geeky Costumes

Unlike The Menace, I’m a lazy geek with minimal sewing abilities. Rather than attempt and fail to construct detailled and elaborate costumes, I stick to costumes that work with what I have in my closet and require the purchase of three accessories max.

Here are some simple, quick, yet geeky costumes that you can put together in time for Halloween (which is only three days away!). These are the ones I thought up yesterday; any other ideas?

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Guys:

Wolverine: Wife beater. Jeans. Dogtags. Leather jacket. Prop claws. Cigar, Sideburns. Five bucks for plastic claws, three for fake sideburns  and scruff (free if you’ve got the hairy genes to grow it yourself).

Superboy: Black T-shirt with red Superman S (can be made out of red tape). Jeans. Sunglasses optional.

Bruce Wayne: Suit. Shirt unbuttoned to reveal Batman symbol underneath?

The Penguin: Tuxedo. Umbrella. Top Hat. Pointy nose. Cigarette in holder. Monocle.

Warren Worthington III: Blonde hair. Jeans. Large angel wings.

Silver Surfer: Silver speedo. Silver bodypaint. Silver swim cap to make yourself look bald. Silver surfboard (can just be carboard cut into the shape and spray painted). Contacts if you want the full effect.

Dr. Manhattan: Blue bodypaint. Blue swim cap to make yourself look bald. Draw in a circle with a dot in the centre of your forehead. Contacts and dark eye makeup. Black biker shorts or speedo or man thong or…you know.

Angel: Dark clothing. Leather jacket. Hair gel. Broody attitude. Maybe vampire fangs.

Waldo: Red and white striped shirt and beanie. Reans. Round glasses. It’s so much better if you surround yourself with people dressed similarly but slightly differently so that it’s like you’re actually hidden in a Where’s Waldo book.

Chuck: White short sleeved shirt. Skinny grey tie. Pens in pocket. Nerd Herd nametag. Bonus points if you have a hot blonde girlfriend in a orange tank top or leather.

Shaun of the Dead: Red tie. White shirt. Red pen in pocket. Nametag. Bloody cricket bat. Bouquet of yellow flowers. Zombie best friend a plus.

The Hulk: Purple shorts. Green body paint. Dark hair.

Severus Snape: Long black robe. Wand. Greasy hair. Big nose and Slytherin colours optional.

Captain Hammer: Hammer T-shirt. Cargo pants tucked into combat boots. Welder’s gloves.

Hiro Nakamura: All black clothing. Draw on a soul patch. Samurai sword.

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Girls:

Baroness: Skin tight, all black clothes. Awesome boots, Glasses. Red Cobra symbol on your chest, (can be made using red tape). Maybe a prop machine gun and ammo belt. Wig if necessary.

Catwoman: Skin tight, all black clothes. Cat ears. Broad gold belt at hip level (can be made out of spray painted cardboard?) and gold coin necklace. Mask. Wig if necessary. Or, alternatively, just boots and a whip.

Ramona Flowers: Cute, punk clothes. Several belts. Colourful wig. Rollerblades or cool boots. Those goggles might be a little hard to find, but you could do without them and still be recognisable. Circle purse with a star. Giant hammer is a plus.

Emma Frost: Blonde hair. White lingerie/bathing suit/corset. White boots. White cape.

She Hulk: Suit. Purple undershirt for a hint of who she is. Green body paint. Wig if necessary. Nametag and briefcase optional. (As a law student, it’s my go-to back-up costume)

Smurfette: White dress. Blue bodypaint, Blonde wig if necessary.

Black Canary: Black bathing suit. Leather jacket. Fishnets. Combat boots. Blonde wig if necessary. Motorbike optional.

Poison Ivy: Green body paint. Red wig if necessary. Leaves glued to a bikini.

Starbuck: Backwards black racerback tank top. Khakis. Combat boots. Hexagonal dogtags. Cigar. Short blonde hair. Tattoo on left arm.

Barbara Gordon/Oracle: Red hair. Wheelchair. Glasses. Laptop and escrima sticks optional.

Leia: Extra large white turtleneck. Long white skirt. Belt. Hair in distinctive buns.

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Pairs:

The Doctor and Companion: so many options here, including but not limited to:

• 9: Leather jacket, Jeans. Dark shirt. Big nose and ears.
• 10: Blue or brown pinstriped suit. Slight sideburns. Converse. Trenchcoat optional.
• 11: Bowtie. Suspenders. Fez. Dress shirt and sweater(vest).
• Rose: Pink or purple. Dirty blonde hair.
• Martha: Red leather jacket. Jeans.

Mulder and Scully: Suits that look like they’re from the 80’s. Trenchcoats. Red hair for Scully.  You can print out prop X-Files FBI badges.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent: Lois = suit and Daily Planet press pass (can be printed from the internet).

Clark = Option 1: Flannel. Jeans. Glasses. Shirt unbuttoned to reveal Superman Symbol underneath. Option 2: Business Casual. Tie. Glasses. Daily Planet press pass. Shirt unbuttoned to reveal Superman Symbol underneath.

Tony Stark and Pepper Potts: Pepper = suit. Crazy high heels.

Tony= Option 1: Wife beater. Jeans,. Goatee. Glow-y arc reactor hanging around his neck and under the wife beater. (I’ve arc reactor necklaces for sale in Halloween stores so I know it’s available; or you could use two glow sticks and electrical tape to achieve the same effect.) Option 2: Suit with arc reactor glow showing through.

Cloak and Dagger: Black guy with a goatee in a black cloak. White girl in skin tight white clothes with relevant sections cut out. Blonde wig if necessary.

Jay and Kay: Suits. Sunglasses. One black guy, one white guy.

Pumpkin Pi: Orange shirt with pumpkin face (can be made using black electrical tape). Pi shirt.

Snikt, bub.

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading up on the next X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie (which will hopefully be better than the first, ‘cause if it’s not I’ll be forced to commit harakiri) and I came across a startling piece of information…

WOLVERINE DATED AN ASIAN?!?!

Perhaps I should have prefaced this with two things. Number one: I am an Asian female. Number two: I don’t know all that much about Wolverine’s history. I just recently got obsessively into comic books (I was only a light reader before) and I’m still learning the ins and outs of the Marvel ‘verse. It’s friggin’ overwhelming, to say the least, but I’m holding on by my pinkies. And now I know: WOLVERINE DATED AN ASIAN. If Wikipedia serves me well, he was even engaged to her at one point. Her name’s Mariko Yashida and damn, gurl got game! Apparently she’s going to be a main character in the upcoming film. My guess? It’s gonna be The Last Samurai with mutants. White man in a strange exotic Azn world. But WHATEVER, I’m just happy that there’ll be an Asian in the mainstream media (i.e. movies, cartoons) Marvel ‘verse that isn’t Lady Deathstrike. While she did look cool in X-2, if memory serves me correctly, she didn’t even have one line of dialogue. BORING. And she just generally gets on my nerves – Dragon Lady stereotype to the max, dude. (Wikipedia definition: A Dragon Lady is a misogynistic stereotype of East Asian women as mean, deceitful, domineering, or mysterious.)

But back to the whole WOLVERINE DATED AN ASIAN?!?! thing (I have to put it in all caps every time, it’s the only way to properly express my initial shock) – It makes me unreasonably happy to know that at least one superhero has a penchant for Asian women. Hey, Marvel, can we give Deadpool an Asian fetish? I mean, Wolverine’s cool and all, but I like my men with a rapier wit and a natural cleverness. Wolverine, while a bona fide undeniable badass, is a bit monosyllabic for my romantic tastes.

And, since who knows when I’ll talk about Wolverine again, here’s a link to my favorite scene from Mallrats. Whenever someone mentions good ol’ Logan, I have to quote this. I’m sure it’s become quite annoying to some of my acquaintances.

P.S. Kevin Smith is a god.

P.P.S. Check out Wolverine (and the lovely Domino) in the X-Force: Sex and Violence series. Part of a panel of the first issue is up at the top of this blog. The third, and last, issue of the series is out on September 8th. The art’s beautiful. And I may or may not have picked it up at my local comic book store because of the title. Mmm, sex and violence. Two of my favorite things. JUST KIDDING. Kinda.