Civil War.

I'm not really a big Marvel fan boy. Don't get me wrong, I grew up with the majority of Marvels superheroes and hold a special place in my imagination for them - but for the most part I don't really collect a whole heck of a lot of Marvel Titles.

When Civil War was being hyped as the comic crossover of the year I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I've been through Marvels epic crossover story arch's before! Fall Of The Mutants, Secret Wars I & II, Apocalypse, blah blah blah. The lead up to Civil War has been incredibly huge. Even before this ginormous arch started up one had to wade through warm up crossovers like Disassembled, House Of M, and Decimation. The marketing ploys behind all these titles was enough to make me wanna puke - and it still does for the most part. Marvel has always been a publishing whore...their foil covers and hologram titles used to lure me in and I often found myself buying the same comic issue five times over so I could have the complete set of covers.

It turned me off of Marvel...pretty much for good. There are a select few titles I still keep tabs on and enjoy, but for the most part Marvel can go fuck a goat.

That said - I decided to pick up the core issues of Civil War and give 'em a go. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I thought for sure to understand what was going on with the Civil War storyline I would have to pick up every comic that had the Civil War sub-title on it. True to their word though, Marvel has kept the core storyline accessible to readers in the primary mini-series alone. Brownie points to them.

The story is as complex or as simple as the reader wants to make it to be. On one side you have Captain America and on the other side you have Iron Man. behind each hero there is a gathering of Marvels finest battling one another. Iron Man believes that Super heroes should have open identities and be registered and trained properly to fight alongside the government (S.H.I.E.L.D.). Captain America wants things to stay as they are and feels that forcing Heroes to register their identities is an infringement on their rights.

Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong, thus the Civil War. Its pretty cool, and there are some pretty memorable battles and surprising dramatic twists involved. It's more then just a money making scheme hatched by Marvel...theres a depth there that I haven't seen from this company for some time, and I am glad that I have decided to follow this crossover...if even it is only the core mini-series and not the rest of the titles. And good gods its great to see Captain America kick the living hell outta people again. I swear the man glows hotter then the sun when he's getting the shit kicked out of him. I love it.

The Invincible Iron Man Animated DVD.

"Synopsis: When billionaire inventor Tony Stark uses break-through technology to physically raise a forgotten city, he awakens an unspeakable evil, giving life to the most vile of all emperors - the Mandarin. Only one man can stop this newly re-emerged force of evil. One who will don a powerful suit of armour forged from iron and advanced technology. To take on the mystical underworld forces of ancient China, he must become The Invincible Iron Man."

Look for the latest direct to DVD movie from Lions Gate and Marvel Feb.23. Until then here's the trailer. :)

Ultimate Alliance ~Nightcrawler Trailer~

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a game coming out this October by Activision along the same vein as the X-Men Legends franchise. As I loved those games it stands to reason that I'm pretty stoked for Ultimate Alliance! Very cool that rather then just containing our beloved mutants from the X-Titles it encompasses a very wide spectrum of heroes and villains from the Marvel universe.

Anyways...regardless of whether or not you are excited for this game this Nightcrawler trailer kicks a whole lot of ass. Check it out - it'll make you a cooler person if you watch it.