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Post by thunderstrike78 on Sept 28, 2009 11:10:41 GMT -5
I think you've got something there, HB.
For me, Bendis reminds me of Aaron Sorkin in a lot of ways. The pitter-patter of dialogue, the cheeky one-liners, the intentional grammatical mistakes (it's been a while since I read any of his stuff, but I seem to remember stutters and mispoken words, just like real human beings talk) that made everyone seem more real to me.
On the other hand, I disagree with his basic understanding of some characters. Captain America, for one, and Spider-Man for another. His understanding of Spider-Man is closer to his understanding of Ultimate Spider-Man; he doesn't seem to recognize that in the mainstream MU, Peter has done a lot of growing up, a lot of maturing, and that he's now a married man (er, whoops! I forgot--THAT's why I stopped reading).
When he's on his A-game, I really do enjoy Bendis' writing, but I also think he's a bit of an arrogant &%$#, and his arrogance oftentimes precludes him from understanding or incorporating past character elements that he doesn't like.
Kurt Busiek, on the other hand, was THE MASTER of incorporating past character elements that he didn't like, and making it all work, to boot. I miss that sometimes. (Probably why I decided to go back and re-read Kurt's run on Avengers and Thunderbolts over the weekend.)
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Post by thunderstrike78 on Sept 28, 2009 10:54:21 GMT -5
I got mine at Gamestop. It's called the "Gold Edition" version, and it included all of the online content released by the developer after the original game was released.
See, after the game proved to be a big success, they started adding characters. I believe there were eight new playable characters in all (4 villians: Venom, Doctor Doom, Magneto and Sabretooth; and 4 heroes: Cyclops, Hawkeye, the Hulk and Nightcrawler). Eventually, they released a second edition of the game to retailers, and then a third edition. The Gold Edition includes all of the online content, and then the Platinum Edition (3rd) adds some sort of DVD movie or something.
I got the one for the Xbox 360, not the Wii, but I'm reasonably sure there are similar Wii versions. The box itself will specify that it's the Gold or Platinum versions, so you shouldn't have to guess.
I imagine that Ultimate Alliance 2 will follow a similar pattern, so I'm holding off on buying it until either the price comes down, or they offer a 2nd edition of some sort.
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Post by thunderstrike78 on Sept 25, 2009 18:09:03 GMT -5
Now, I admittedly have not been around much for the last year or so. I stopped buying comics (for financial reasons) in the middle of Secret Invasion, so I'm a little behind.
That said, I have always been at-once enthusiastic and skeptical about Brian Michael Bendis.
IMHO, his plots are pretty weak. Thin might be a better word. The common complaint, of course, is that his stories are not only "decompressed" but MASSIVELY decompressed. He takes four or five issues to tell a story that could easily be told in a single issue. And the plots themselves are pretty simplistic. The whole arc just before Civil War was embarrasingly simple: super-powerful mutant energy thing attacks town, Avengers arrive, they fight, Avengers win. How many issues did that take, again?
On the other hand, the man has dialogue and characterization DOWN. One thing he does VERY WELL is making larger-than-life characters feel very down-to-earth and real. In that regard, he's not unlike Quentin Tarantino (think of the "Royale with Cheese" conversation in Pulp Fiction). He may not understand several characters' backgrounds leading up to the point where he started writing them, but he does a very good job of making each character act and sound like an individual with a unique background.
Ideally, I think Bendis' strength is in scripting, not plotting. He would be fantastic if someone plotted out his stories beforehand, and then he simply added the dialogue and details afterward.
Just my two cents.
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Post by thunderstrike78 on Sept 25, 2009 15:34:59 GMT -5
I'd forgotten about the abrupt end to Byrne's Spiderman experiment (if this is the right instance I'm thinking of): Cap completely talks Spidey into joining, telling him he'd be ideal--- and then at the end of that Vault (Project Pegasus?) mission, tells him that he just doesn't work well in a team environment, sorry, but thanks for giving it a try. Wha-? I vividly remember that Byrne story. It was actually the first Avengers storyline I ever bought, thanks to Spider-Man's appearance. I was a die-hard Spidey fan at the time, and I made a point to purchase any book in which he appeared (forgive me, I couldn't have been older than 13 years old at the time). I was very excited at the time, and really enjoyed the whole story (not being familiar with any of the Avengers, I didn't see anything amiss), but I was terribly disappointed when the story ended with Cap telling him "Thanks, but no thanks." Incidentally, I always thought the whole "you don't work well in a team environment" argument didn't make any sense. I always thought he would work extremely well in a team environment, and that's one of the things I can't argue with about Bendis' run (although, I admit, there are a number of other things I can take issue with).
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Post by thunderstrike78 on Sept 25, 2009 14:18:58 GMT -5
Don't worry. I'm sure they'll release a "gold" version with all the online content, just like they did with the first one.
I just bought the "gold" version of the first game yesterday, in fact. I sold back the basic version (for PS2) that I bought when it first came out, along with a bunch of other games, and got a copy of the newer version, so now I can play Hawkeye (whoohoo!), Hulk, and a bunch of other new characters.
Plus, it's fun going back through and unlocking everything again, and the XBOX 360 version looks SO MUCH better than the PS2 version. I'm such a nerd. =p
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