You guys remember The Ray Wall band, right? Of course you do! They're the cats that released the wicked "Fantastic Four Song" and "The Joker" not too long ago. Well, the band's back with a new track simply titled "Watchmen." You only get one guess to figure out what it's about. I've listened to it a couple of times already, and can happily recommend it. It seems like Ray's style evolves with each new track produced, and "Watchmen" is no exception. While "The Joker" was a little dark (but still perfectly campy), "Watchmen" takes it to a whole new level (which works very well here, considering the source). Go give it a listen. Full press release and download links after the jump.
Welcome to Il Palazzo's Weekly Heroes Rant! Each week, I hope to inspire you to get off your couch (after watching Heroes), and jump into your computer chair (so you can read about Heroes). Beware though, I'll be recapping each episode as it airs, so spoilers will abound. Look forward to my often-wrong theories, erratic comments, and comparisons to the comics the show steals material from is inspired by. Hit the jump for my rant on this week's episode!
This morning, Goblin threw down an interesting article on my e-desk. Apparently, back in November, Unreality Magazine finally answered that 3 season-year old question: Who would win in a fight between the cast of Heroes and the X-Men? It's a very good read (even if a little outdated now that volume four of Heroes is running), and I suggest you check it out. There are a few minor gripes though:
One being Arthur vs. Rogue:
Both have the power to zap the ability (and life) out of another mutant, but Arthur's power seems much more advanced and dangerous. Rogue only keeps the power for a short period of time, but there doesn't seem to be a limit on how long Arthur can keep his stolen goods. He also can absorb so much of a person that they literally turn into dust on the spot, even if they've been rumored to be immortal. I've never seen Rogue pull that off.
Yeah, Rogue can easily kill people with her touch. She put the first guy she ever kissed into a coma, remember? They don't even have to be immortal for her to suck the life out of them.
The other one is for the Sylar and Magneto fight. Mags could win in under five seconds. "Oh? Is that some scrap metal lying around? Let me just levitate that into the back of your skull while I float up several yards away. There we go."
I would like to see Heroes Vs. Watchmen next. Just throwing that out there.
Welcome to Il Palazzo's Weekly Heroes Rant! Each week, I hope to inspire you to get off your couch (after watching Heroes), and jump into your computer chair (so you can read about Heroes). Beware though, I'll be recapping each episode as it airs, so spoilers will abound. Look forward to my often-wrong theories, erratic comments, and comparisons to the comics the show steals material from is inspired by. Hit the jump for my rant on this week's episode!
Welcome to Il Palazzo's Weekly Heroes Rant! Each week, I hope to inspire you to get off your couch (after watching Heroes), and jump into your computer chair (so you can read about Heroes). Beware though, I'll be recapping each episode as it airs, so spoilers will abound. Look forward to my often-wrong theories, erratic comments, and comparisons to the comics the show steals material from is inspired by. Hit the jump for my rant on this week's episode!
Welcome to Il Palazzo's Weekly Heroes Rant! Each week, I hope to inspire you to get off your couch (after watching Heroes), and jump into your computer chair (so you can read about Heroes). Beware though, I'll be recapping each episode as it airs, so spoilers will abound. Look forward to my often-wrong theories, erratic comments, and comparisons to the comics the show steals material from is inspired by. Hit the jump for my rant on this week's episode!
Welcome back, Heroes! I've missed you...sorta. To be completely honest, you really did not impress me with the last volume. Between the characters constantly changing sides, characters getting written out, and Ando getting superpowers, it was hard to follow it the whole way through. However, the last bit at the end of "Villains" did make me intrigued enough to come back for volume four. Is Nathan going to be as much of a douchebag as we think he will? Will Sylar find his parents? Is Micah coming back? Is little Timmy gonna get stuck in a well again? Get off your couches everyone and gather around. Your resident Heroes watcher, Il Palazzo, is here with none of those answers, and more!
Awww, ain't he adorable? Sorry, where was I? Right, this week's character comes to us straight from the pages of Sgt. Frog. Private Second Class Tamama is part of the Keroro Platoon, a bumbling group of aliens sent from the planet Keron to invade the Earth. When we first meet Tamama, he seems like a cute, easygoing little alien who loves candy, but he quickly reverts into a hateful little firecracker that destroys anything that pisses him off with his "Tamama Impact." He especially goes into a rage whenever someone else show's interest in Sgt. Keroro(the book's main character). One of the running gags of the series is Tamama plotting to take out Angol Moa, a human-looking bringer of Armageddon, who is always doting on the Sergeant. Tamama has not been outed as gay, but there has been one instance of some of the other platoon members joking about it with him, and you can clearly see he's trying to hide it. Hang in there Tamama, you'll win the Sergeant over one day! ....but probably not.
*yawn* Il Palazzo here, bringing you this week's fresh new manga from my night shift, here at ACROSS (formerly known as the Gaygamer castle). This week, Bandai rolls out a new installment of Ghost Slayers Ayashi. Dark Horse unleashes the 27th volume of Bezerk. Del Ray has a one-two punch with new volumes of Tsubasa and Wallflower. Tokyopop dominates the week with releases that include Battle Vixens, Gakuen Alice, King of Hell, Rave Master, and Trinity Blood. Viz tries to pick up the slack with a new Bastard and Switch. Notable debuts include Double Trouble from Digital Manga, Orange from Tokyopop, and Pixie(also from Tokyopop). And no, there's no Lucky Star manga news. I just liked the picture.
As you may have guessed from the title, I'll be taking over the reigns of the "LGBT character of the week" article for a while. Why, you ask? Well, it seems our overworked Sergeant is flat out of characters. So, until the states finally creates/outs new comic characters, it's up to me to show you guys the best of what Japan has to offer.
Our first spotlight falls on the title character from Ranma 1/2. Ranma Saotome isn't gay, or even bisexual. But he is VERY transgendered. While training with his father over a couple of cursed springs, Ranma and his father fall in, causing Genma(Ranma's dad) to turn into a panda. Ranma gets the unfortunate(?) fate of turning into a girl.
We quickly learn that when exposed to cold water, Ranma transforms into a female version of himself, but hot water will change him back. This creates several hilarious situations that make poor Ranma emotionally unstable (you'd be constantly pissed too if you were always having to worry about wearing a bra or not).
It could be argued that Ranma is a lesbian in his girl form...if he ever actually kissed a girl. For various reasons, Ranma is betrothed to three different girls (not counting the other ones that he meets along the course of the series), but he doesn't seem to have any remote interest in pursuing any of them. And lets not forget Tatewaki Kuno, who hates boy-type Ranma with a passion, but has an undying love for girl-type Ranma.
Sadly, Ranma never finds a real relationship or anything (which is for the best, since that's not really the point of the series), but towards the end it seems like he may lean toward his fiance Akane.
That's right boys and girls. Il Palazzo's back. And I'm here to kick ass and show you some new manga. And I'm all out of manga. Oh, wait. There's some right over there! This week, Dorothy goes all out in the second volume of the Land of Oz manga. Dark Horse unleashes a new killer volume of Gantz, while CMX retaliates with a vicious installment of Gon. Tokyopop reloads with the newest Love Attack, and Vertical goes all out with some more Black Jack. Finally, Viz takes the room out with more Case Closed, Inu Yasha, Real, and the newest Shojo Beat. Badass debuts this week include the Vizbig version of Fushigi Yugi and Maximum Ride, which leaps out of Yen Plus with guns blazing.
If you think you're a bad enough dude, check out the full list after the jump.
I know you're hurting right now. I feel the pain too. There's just nothing good on TV any more. With Heroes gone until February, there's just not much to do in that 9/8c time slot. Luckily, I'm here to help. I've compiled a small list of things Heroes fans can do to occupy their time. Ok, I really just made it for myself, but I thought it would be nice to share. And just think, it could be a lot worse! We could have to wait over half a year for another episode. Oh, right. We did.
Read the five things you can do while waiting for the return of Heroes after the jump.
Northstar's Boyfriend Coming In January!
You guys may recall I was a bit cranky about Northstar and his lack of lovin' about a year and a half ago. In fact, at the time, I issued a challenge to Marvel to get him a kiss by June 2009 or I would declare him not really gay. I have not forgotten about this. However, when the X-men moved to San Francisco this year, we were teased with the existence of what looked to be Northstar's boyfriend (and manager), so I delayed judgment until we could see more. Since then, Northstar hasn't had a lot of major appearances, as there have been about a thousand major crossover events in the Marvel universe in the last six months, and each one tends to disrupt the normal storyline for most books, including the many X-books. So I waited. Our patience seems to have been rewarded! Artist Tim Fish revealed on his blog that his upcoming story in Nation X #2 (which comes out in Jan.) is a story about Northstar, and will feature Kyle, his boyfriend in an 8-page story. I'm not sure if an actual kiss is in it, but it's implied that there is some lovin' going on. Check out some sketches of Northstar, Kyle, and Aurora below, and we'll keep you up to date when we get closer to Jan. NATION X #2 1/6/10 [TimFishWorks]...
