This loose sequel is being directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and is rumored to have a cameo appearance by Danny Ketch who also puts some time in as Ghost Rider. With the flaming skull back into theaters on February 17, 2012, the film also stars, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Idris Elba and Johnny Whitworth.

LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.

The movie trailer for The Avengers has debuted. We don’t know why you wouldn’t have seen it yet (you know who you are), so we’ll do you a favor and make sure you see it now!

In 2001 Capcom’s fighting game hit Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was released to arcades and the Sega Dreamcast.  With mixed bag of reused sprites from older games, great music, 3D backgrounds, and slightly unbalanced characters, MvC2 would end up being considered one of the all-time favorite fighting games in the world.  To this day, MvC2 is still heavily played in fighting game tournaments.  After over 10 years of waiting and a load of speculation, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 has finally been released.  With a roster comprised of new and old characters, a new gameplay system, and 3D visuals it would seem that Capcom is once again on the verge of having another mega-hit in their fighting game series.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 packs a strong punch with it’s graphical presentation and sound.  Visually, MvC3 looks like a comic book in motion.  The character’s sport a great looking shading style and are animated nicely.  Every character is detailed and authentic to their in-game or comic book sources.  Worth noting also is that Capcom has done this whole game with 3D models.  Gone are the days of recycled sprites and reused animations.  Even the backgrounds are full of nice touches and characters from other Marvel comics and Capcom games.  The music is a bit of a mixed bag of techno sounding tunes and remixed theme music from MvC2.  Not for everybody, but still not lackluster or bad either.

If gameplay is truly king then MvC3 is clearly vying for the crown when it comes to that.  MvC3 sports a 6 button setup instead of the old 4 button layout of MvC2.  2 years ago Capcom introduced an almost similar button layout in their Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom game in arcades and on the Nintendo Wii console.  MvC3 button layout consists of three attack buttons, a universal launcher button, and two tag/assist buttons.  Button presses plus various directions would equal a variation of basic attacks.  This is a simple system, yet it is complex to master as well.  Back from the old MvC2 game is the advancing guard and a few other variations of old techniques.  Almost every character sports two to three super moves and the combination supers are still around as well.  Combos are pretty easy to pull off in MvC3 and the launcher button now makes air combos a lot easier to start.  Add in new mechanics like X-Factor, which can completely turn a match around, or being able to swap characters in mid-air combos and there’s a lot to be learned.  Once again, this is a game that will be easy to learn but once mastered it screen will become a masterpiece of combo madness.

For everything MvC3 does right there are some blaring omissions in the package that takes the experience down a bit.  After the addition of Tournament Mode to Street Fighter IV as DLC one would expect that MvC3 would’ve shipped with a similar mode.  This is not the case.  So what players get is a bare-bones multiplayer experience.  A theater mode which has now become somewhat of a standard in a lot of high profile games would’ve been pretty nice to allow players to upload and showoff those wild matches.  None of the modes from Capcom’s last fighter Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom made it into MvC3.  None!  Not even Time Attack or Survival Mode.  One could also complain about a roster of fewer characters than MvC2 had, but that would really be nitpicking.  36 characters is plenty, especially when they are well-balanced and there aren’t any palatte-swapped clones to be found on the roster.

As it stands, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 has lived up to its 10 year legacy and the year of hype surrounding the release.  One would be hard pressed to find a fighting game right now that ignites so much competitive spirit amongst fighting game fans. Despite it few shortcomings in the features department this is still a fighting game that no fan of the genre should be without.  After 10 years Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 has been passed the torch and it shines brightly like a beacon in the horizon.  Fighting game lovers follow that beacon…and come get your butt kicked!

Alex: Hey, check it out… The Twilight graphic novel.

Wife: Is that supposed to be Edward?

Alex: Ha! Nice one.

[Alex high-fives Wife.]

Wife: No, seriously, is that supposed to be Edward? I can’t tell.

…And that’s all you need to know about the Twilight Graphic Novel!

Sadly, I couldn’t make it to Rochester for the exhibit myself. But I had family in attendance and they all had a great time. I come from mighty nerd stock and can guarantee, if you are half the geek that any one of my family members is, you’ll want to consider a trip to Strong.

Check out the Strong Museum website for more info, and click on over to the other side of this link for a peek inside the American Comic Book Heroes exhibit.

I don’t write a lot of comics.  And the ones I do write…I have to wonder if they’re all that good. In fact, the only comic I’ve written that you may have possibly kind of sort of maybe heard of–Division 18–had only one measly issue actually go to press and appear on comic store shelves.

Dream come true? Absolutely. But it was a black and white comedy book. It was published by a now-defunct small press publisher. We had a print run of less than 1000 copies. Not exactly the type of comic 8-year-old Marvel Zombie me was hoping to create as an adult. I’m happy, but the itch has not been fully scratched.

But there won’t be much more scratching where D18 is concerned. The co-creator and artist on that comic, Jeremy Donelson, and I decided that it was “better business” for us to just put our work online for free–three full issues are now available on the D18 site–than it would be to put up hundreds of our own dollars, maybe thousands over time, to self-publish and promote a printed version of our comic. And web comics require just as much time, with even less hope for a payoff. We can’t all be Scott Kurtz.

And therein lies the problem–the creator’s dilema when it comes to working up from the bottom, trying to scratch out something from nothing:  Where is the line between a job and a hobby? And when does a dream turn into a drag?

The time commitment alone was already getting to be too much for us one issue into D18–particularly for Jeremy, who would put in hours a day penciling, inking, lettering, formatting, etc, all the while working a full-time job and knowing there would probably be no return on his time investment. Let me tell you a not-so-secret secret: in that respect, it is definitely easier to be the writer–some days I can sneak hours of writing time in at work; and at home, the effort of typing at a keyboard is nothing compared to what an illustrator has to do at his or her drawing table, re: the space, the setup, the supplies, etc. I try to make the job of my artists as easy as possible when I write a script, but I still don’t envy the amount of effort they need to put into just one panel, let alone a full project.

But psychologically, the small press, no-name, just-starting-out writer and artist are in the same boat, wondering if all the effort is going to ever pay off. And if it does pay off, will it be enough? What kind of payoff are we even hoping for? I couldn’t tell you.

Creatively, I am very happy and satisfied with Division 18. Professionally? I’m pretty sure it’s a dead end. And now I am happily plugging away at smaller projects, antholgy pieces and the occasional ambitious pitch, for the most part. I accept the realities of the “return on investment” of time and effort and money that I’m going to get for what I am willing to put in. In many respects, I’ve made a willful decision to exchange hustle for happiness. If I can catch lightning by coming up with that great idea that just has to get out of my brain and onto the page, I will be all over it and it will be awesome. But I’m also content working at a hobbyist’s pace, especially considering my recent distracting health issues, my desire to actually spend time with my wife and daughter, and the fact that I already have a “real job” that I don’t exactly hate and that pays better and more consistently than any full-time gig as a comics freelancer would–not to mention the fact that any writing I do still requires the time and effort of an artist (and sometimes a team of artists–lettering, inking, coloring) who are also willing to work for free.

And as I learned with D18, nobody wants to do that.

The best I can hope for–and I suspect this is the reality for a lot of wannabe creators–is that I can find a venue for a piece before convincing an artist that four, eight, or twelve pages guaranteed to be printed in an anthology or submitted to Zuda or packaged with my script in a pitch will be worth it for them in the long run.

I’ve been doing a lot of work with Renzo Ventrella for the DC Conspiracy’s Doctor Dremo anthologies, a self-publishing effort where I can promise that the books will be available online, at small press conventions, and in a handful of stores…and then I take care of our share of the print costs. It’s not a lot of money, but it is a gesture of gratitude and really all I can afford. I’ve also just started receiving final pages for an eight-page comic I wrote for a charity anthology from Ronin Studios–no monetary cost for me, and I was able to connect with an artist who was willing to put in the time and effort for a good cause. Arie Monroe has done a knockout job drawing this comic despite struggling with all the same time and money constraints that have been the thorn in my own creative side.Making comics this way is a giant pain in the ass, there’s a ton of doubt as to whether it is ever going to pay off in any way, and every now and then I have to question whether it’s worth it.

But then I remember: At least we’re making comics.

That’s enough, right?