Random Thoughts On... Ultimate Spider-Man Post-Bagley through Ultimatum

I’ve been looking at the blog lately, and I just realized that it’s been along time since I’ve talked about any Spider-Man. Yeah, I may have mentioned him in one post or another, but 2018’s still a long time. Right now, the third MCU Spider-Man movie has been released, and… I haven’t seen it. Yeah, I’m that behind on Spider-Man these days. I still haven’t seen Far From Home, though that could be due to not caring about the Wall-Crawler these days and the fact that it ain’t on Disney Plus. I’ve heard good stuff about No Way Home, so I may see it… someday.

Today, I thought I would return to the world of the pretty defunct Ultimate Universe. A few years ago, I went through an adventure of sorts. I reviewed Ultimate Spider-Man from the beginning to Mark Bagley’s departure from the book. I can safely say that it was an awesome run. Last year, I finally decided to see what the rest of the first run of Ultimate Spider-Man looked like. I started the Bendis/Immonen run and pretty much got to Ultimatum, the event that changed the Ultimate Universe for more ill than good. I actually skipped ahead and read more after that event like Hickman’s Ultimate Avengers.

Today, I’ll just be listing my thoughts on this run of issues. The issues will be Ultimate Spider-Man #112-133, Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #3, and Ultimatum: Spider-Man Requiem. Of course, Brian Michael Bendis is the writer of all of these issues. While Stuart Immonen started his run on the book in #111, he ends up doing his first full issue with #112. Immonen’s been all over the place working on characters like Superman, the X-Men, and many others. Wade von Grawbadger joins the crew as the inker for the book. Grawbadger was one of Immonen’s usual inkers and stays on the book during his duration. The Annual was drawn and inked by David LaFuente, the artist that took over after Ultimatum. Mark Bagley returns to draw some pages in the Requiem mini.

Movie Talk - The Lawnmower Man Movies

So, I was just perusing HBO Max a couple of days ago, and I ended up coming across The Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe’s War on there. I had to sit there and laugh for a couple of seconds because I know this movie has been completely panned. I vaguely remember seeing a trailer for it back in the 90’s (I think it was on the Mortal Kombat VHS) and thought to myself, “That looks interesting.” I was probably also thinking about its predecessor, the Lawnmower Man, which I think I saw at that point. I’m just not sure. All I know is that it aired on NBC one weekend.

The Lawnmower Man was an original screenplay (called “CyberGod”) that took its title from one of Stephen King’s short stories. Other than a weird lawnmower man and death being involved, there is no cyberspace in the original story. Heck, it came out in the 70’s. The screenplay eventually made it to theaters in 1992, and Stephen King didn’t like that his name was on it. He took New Line Cinema to court and actually won the case. The sequel, Jobe’s War or Beyond Cyberspace, was released in 1996. I ended up re-watching The Lawnmower Man Director’s Cut at the hospital after Andy was born. I needed a bit of a break while Liz and Andy were asleep. I just recently saw Jobe’s War on HBO Max.

Movie Talk - The Street Fighter Animated Movies

I’ve noticed that I’ve been in game mode here recently. I guess that’s one side effect of the pandemic: more time to play stuff. Today’s post is still in that mode, but I’m including a bit of anime in this time. Animation and Fighting games tend to have a weird record a lot like live action video game adaptations. Sometimes, they ain’t too bad. Other times, you wonder what narcotic the creators were taking when making the anime. While I like the Street Fighter franchise, I’ll admit that it’s not too high on the totem pole these days. I think one reason for that is the fact that I don’t know jack about these characters. You’d think that the numerous movies would help, but nah.

Some time ago, I decided to re-watch the animated Street Fighter movie from the 1990s on Amazon Prime. I actually owned the movie back in college. It was a collection of Street Fighter games for the PS2, and some jackass stole it back in college along with a few more games and some books. Thankfully, I didn’t need the books that much, but I would’ve loved to traded American History and Psych 101 in. I’ve seen the other movies in bits and pieces on TV and online. I didn’t even know about the last movie, The Ties That Bind, until this week. I also noticed something on Hulu (Round 1: Fight), but that was apparently a motion comic.

"It's a Video Game!" - My Time with Mass Effect Legendary Edition: Part 3

Well, it took a while, but I finally finished my time with Mass Effect 3. According to the Playstation 2021 Year-End thing, I put 125 hours into the whole trilogy. It's time well spent, I say! So, with saying all that, what do I think of this upgraded Mass Effect 3?

Like with Mass Effect 2, ME3 just received a bit of a coat of fresh paint. Not a lot has changed here. While there were a couple of noticeable changes (my crazy dance scene got taken out!), things are pretty much the same. I also know that they upgraded Tali's unmasked face, but I never got to see that since I was romancing Liara in this run. Everything from beginning to end was pretty much the same especially the ending. The baby still plays well. We got some of the best gunplay in the franchise with Shepard being a straight-up beast. The only thing I didn't revisit was the Omega DLC. I may do that some other time. 

The Favorites - Ranked Assassin's Creed Protagonists: Favorite to Least Favorite

Well, it’s a new year, and things still feel like they haven’t changed. 2021 wasn’t a great year, but I can’t call it bad either. It had its usual ups and downs. Anyway, one thing I wanted to eventually cover was who my favorite Assassin’s Creed protagonists were. Even though I still haven’t played Liberation (which actually is now on the PS4 on that AC3 remaster), I want to go on and get this done.

So, what’s the criteria in a good protagonist? I think there are many factors, but the main one is that they gotta be likable. You can even find some likability by playing a protagonist who’s off into some dark deeds like Shay Kormac from Rogue or Haytham Kenway from AC3. Development is definitely a plus in my department. Even when some get one game, the story surrounding them is usually pretty dang good. Throw things like fighting ability, personality, and a crapton of other stuff as well. For a bit of a shock, I’m also including other protagonists like the modern day ones, ones from DLC, and ones we play for a little bit. So, let’s start off with easily the best of the bunch:

1. Ezio Auditore da Frienze (the Ezio Trilogy) – Yeah, you know Ezio is going up top. One of the reasons the franchise got such a kick in popularity was because of Ezio. We got to see him grow (literally, we first see him after he’s born!) from a brat into one of the wisest Assassins. He a lover, a fighter, and everything in between. Even though he wasn’t the first Assassin, he was one of the reasons why I became a fan of Assassin’s Creed. I also have to credit Robin Atkins Dowe for providing some great voice acting.

2. Bayek of Siwa (Origins) – This was a tough one because either Bayek or the next pick was going to get this spot. I just had to do a Wesley Snipes and “Always go with black” on this one. In my replay, I was excited to return to Egypt to experience the butt-kicking Medjay. While Bayek did have a bit of a familiar backstory (he wanted a taste of revenge), there was a lot more to him than that. He was already a protector, he was a husband, and he had a son. Seeing him and Aya lose their son, Khemu, and dedicate themselves to a higher calling was interesting. Abubakar Salim did a great job in voicing Bayek.

3. Edward Kenway (Black Flag) – One of the reasons Black Flag was such a success was because it had a cool protagonist in Edward Kenway. He was a scoundrel who interacted in the Assassin/Templar conflict in an interesting way. Heck, he stays a bit of a scoundrel for a majority of the game since he was a pirate. He only wore the Assassin garb for show and took “nothing is true, everything is permitted” a little too literally. It took losing everything he had (his family, his friends, his ship, and almost his life) for him to change his pirate ways and become an Assassin in the end. Matt Ryan (John Constantine!) voiced him and did a wonderful job.