MTV Geek

Animated "Harold and Kumar" Leads the List of New Pilots In the Adult Swim Upfronts

Charles Webb — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:00:51 +0000

Plus, Community's creator Dan Harmon has a half-hour animated series on the way as Adult Swim mixes new live-action and animated content for the next season.

Adult Swim continues to mix it up with the announcement of new pilots on the way for their late-night block of original programming. The most interesting part: the shift to a greater number of half-hour programs, albeit without completely abandoning the 15-minute shows that have traditionally been the Cartoon Network's late-night lineup's bread and butter.

Up first, actors John Cho and Kal Penn will reprise their titular roles in the currently untitled Harold and Kumar animated series. It's being produced by Lionsgate and A Harold & Kumar Very 3D Christmas writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are on board to provide scripts. No word on Neil Patrick Harris' almost certain involvement.

Next up, Dan Harmon has Rick & Morty on the way featuring a genius inventor and his dim-witted grandson sharing life experiences. This one will be 30 minutes.

Colonel Wallace (Working Title) is a 15-minute show centering on a Southern fried chicken magnate and his sure to be dysfunctional brood. This one is from Greg Cohen, a Late Night With Conan O'Brien vet.

Coffin Dodgers is from Drawn Together's Dave Silverstein and Matt Jeser and is about a group of elderly Animal House-types in a tranquil retirement community. This one will also be 30 minutes.

Sketch comedy group Green Bench's Green Bench: The American Day Dream is another half-hour entry about a group of friends who pool their money together to buy a massive office space without any idea what kind of business they plan to run.

More live-action half hour comedy with Freestyle Love Supreme from Black Dynamite's Ars Nova. This one features a group of IT guys who practice their freestyle rap at their day job and sounds like it has a little bit of that Workaholics vibe.

From JJ Villard (Monsters vs. Aliens) and Eric Kaplan (The Big Bang Theory) comes the 15-minute King Star King which features a dimwitted He-Man type in the modern world. No word on when Kogarth of Barbaria will ever become a thing, though.

Finally, there's Rolling With Dad about a wheelchair-bound genius patriarch dealing with his less intelligent family. Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg and producing this half-hour animated series.

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

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Mike Allred - From Fan to Artist on 'Daredevil' #17

Eddie Wright — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:30:35 +0000

USA Today revealed that Madman and iZombie artist Mike Allred is jumping aboard Mark Waid's wonderful run Daredevil with issue #17.

In a recent issue of the series, which has previously been drawn by Marcos Martin, Paolo Manuel Rivera and Chris Samnee, Allred professed his love for the title by saying:

I would LOVE to do a guest spot if you'd be into my humble scratchings.

To which Daredevil editor Steve Wacker replied:

OF COURSE YOU CAN DRAW SOME DAREDEVIL!

And there you have it. Dreams do come true, kiddies!

Here's a look at USA Today's the full cover of Daredevil #17

Daredevil issue 17 cover

Allred's retro, 60's style will perfectly fit the feel of the world that Waid and co. have created for Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson and the rest of the gang.

This will be good.

Daredevil #17 debuts in August

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"A.D.: New Orleans" Creator Josh Neufeld Talks "Bahrain: Lines In Ink, Lines In The Sand"

MTV Geek — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:00:02 +0000

By Danica Davidson

Josh Neufeld (“A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” “The Influencing Machine”) has been Eisner-nominated for his webcomic “Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand,” which gives both a journalistic and personal perspective to recent uprisings in the Middle East. After visiting the small country of Bahrain, Neufeld became friends with local political cartoonists Mohammed and Sara, and soon learned that the two have very different opinions about what’s going on in their nation. Using their experiences — and some of their cartoons — Neufeld applied the comics medium to inform people about what’s happening in Bahrain. The piece has been translated into Italian, will probably be in Farsi soon for a liberal Iranian website, and Neufeld has been given the Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship to study more on Bahrain.

MTV Geek: What can you tell us about “Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand”?

Josh Neufeld: It came about from a trip I made with the State Department as a cultural ambassador of sorts. My previous book, “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge” was critical in some ways of the government response to Hurricane Katrina, and the State Department found that it was a useful example of our country’s freedom of expression. So they asked me if I would like to travel to countries that don’t have that freedom and talk about it in that context. I went to the small country of Bahrain, which is a monarchy with a Sunni minority in control and a Shia majority. They’re very free in some ways compared to other Arab countries, but they have a very controlled press. During that trip, I made some appearances at universities, arts organizations and journalist organizations, where I met editorial cartoonists and aspiring political cartoonists. I met two twenty-year-old kids, a young man and a young woman, whom I stayed in touch with on Facebook. When the Arab Spring movement started to take place in 2011, Bahrain underwent its own upheaval. Through Facebook I determined pretty quickly that the two young people I’d made friends with were on opposite sides of that struggle going on in Bahrain. So my piece documents that whole story.

The story is very much about social media, which has also been a big part of the so-called Arab Spring movements. Without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LiveStream, many of these uprisings never would have gotten off the ground. In the story, I try to illustrate that through conversations I had with the subjects via Facebook, and also show how the Bahrain government used Facebook to identify and later punish demonstrators. And of course both Mohammed and Sara publish their cartoons exclusively online.

My story is also exclusively online.

Geek: Did you go to Bahrain planning to write something about it?

Neufeld: No, though I always wonder if my experiences will lead to something. I’m not a typical journalist in that I don’t troll the news wires looking for a story. I look for things I have a connection to on an emotional level and turn it into a story. It was after being in Bahrain I saw the potential for a story and telling both sides to the story, though I think the reader will come to the conclusion that my empathy is more on the side of the oppressed majority of Shiites than the ruling Sunni party.

Geek: Do you hope people will learn more about Bahrain through this?
Neufeld: I think you can’t help but learn, because 99% of Americans don’t know anything about Bahrain, just as I didn’t before going to the country. It’s really small, very far away and not a lot of news gets out. Whenever I do work, I hope it can enlighten, because that’s why I do nonfiction comics.

Geek: Are there any hopes or plans to get it in print form?

Neufeld: I think what I wrote is a boiled down version of the whole story. I would like to expand what I have and it would easily be a full-length book. I would hope to use this webcomic as a spring board for a larger project.

Geek: What do Mohammed and Sara think of it?

Neufeld: Mohammed, I think, felt I did him a great service. He and his friends on Facebook have been very grateful and feel I’ve helped to spread the word of what’s going on in Bahrain. There’s been a lot of tweeting of the story around the Middle East.

Sara wasn’t as happy with the story. At the same time, she doesn’t accuse me of misquoting her or misrepresenting her opinion. She says I didn’t get enough information to get the “true story.” But I think that’s something the reader gets out of this story: both sides have very few things they agree on, even things we consider facts about what happened where and when. They have trouble finding common ground even on things that were factually documented.

Geek: How did you learn it had been nominated for an Eisner?

Neufeld: I actually got a heads up from one of the administrators that I should look for it the next morning. That was pretty cool!

Geek: What are you working on now?

Neufeld: My current project is a 35-page comics piece for The Atavist, a boutique publisher producing original nonfiction stories for mobile reading devices. A collaboration with journalist Tori Marlan, our piece tells the harrowing true story of a young Ethiopian boy’s illegal migration from South Africa to the U.S — all in comics form and with accompanying multimedia components. It should debut in July.

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Classic Battleship Gets Retooled With an Alien Fleet, Rihanna Boat Not Included

Matt Morgan — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:30:39 +0000

The art of the retcon may have been perfected in the comic book industry, but board games can occasionally get in on the fun too. When it was first announced that the Battleship movie would feature an evil alien race, the internet snark machine started firing on all cylinders. "But there aren't any aliens in the Battleship board game!" the commenters decried, so what was Hasbro to do? For starters, they've gone back and re-made the original Battleship with added alien ships. Happy now?

The new movie edition has replaced one fleet with a set of five alien ships: the flagship, heavy ordnance craft, red storm stinger, blue shredder stinger, and the small assault ship. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume these names will make more sense once you've seen the movie.

This ain't your daddy's Naval fleet. All five of the new alien ships are pictured above.

Taking a look at the human navy fleet, though, we can draw one conclusion about the film: the world must band together to repel the alien invasion. There are both American and Japanese destroyers fighting on the same side. Don't tell great grandpa!

Going beyond the surface, Classic Battleship Movie Edition is more than a few upgraded plastic ships; there's also two new game modes packed into the box. In Salvo mode, players get as many shots as they have remaining, while in Special Ops mode, a new deck of cards gives players added firepower.

But are these new game modes any fun? For starters, the Salvo mode definitely has a place in Battleship. Adopting a hunt/target strategy with a focus on knocking out one ship before moving on to the next will actually speed up most matches. Don't believe me? Check out this mathematical analysis of optimal Battleship strategy. To be fair, the skill cap is low enough that Battleship is more of a social activity than a true game, so throwing in some salvo rules will help keep the game moving along. A dragging experience is the number one enemy when playing a game as a social activity, making the Salvo mode a natural choice.

As for the Special Ops mode, that version of play turns Battleship into a much crunchier game. The deck of action cards grants players the ability to fire extra shots, blitz entire rows or columns, and even pry coordinate information from their opponents. There is also a "remains in play"-type card that grants an extra shot each turn until one of your own ships is destroyed.

The Special Ops cards are dealt out in a starting five-card hand, and players can take two actions per turn: any combination of playing cards from their hand or drawing new ones from the deck.

I'll be honest, you're not going to find me bringing this to my local game night, but for the target audience of a seven-year-old, the Special Ops mode of Battleship Movie Edition could be gold. I'm not aware of any other game on toy store shelves that would teach a kid the concept of hand management with card-driven actions.

Sure, the options open up if you have a dedicated game store available, but most kids are only shopping at Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us. If that's the situation you're dealing with and you want to turn a budding little geek onto gaming, you could do a lot worse than diving into the advanced rules of Battleship Movie Edition with them.

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"Green Lantern: The Animated Series" Coming to DVD in August

Charles Webb — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:00:47 +0000

The first release, Season One, Part One, will chronicle "The Rise of the Red Lanterns."

The set will include the first 13 episodes from the Cartoon Network CG series featuring space cop Hal Jordan (Josh Keaton) doling out intergalactic justice, and will be available on August 28th. This first collection will also include a four page preview of the upcoming Green Lantern The Animated Series comic book, coming later this year from DC. The whole shebang has a suggested retail price of $19.97.

The episodes included on the two-disc DVD set are:

1. Beware My Power…Green Lantern's Light (Part One)
2. Beware My Power…Green Lantern's Light (Part Two)
3. Razer's Edge
4. Into the Abyss
5. Heir Apparent
6. Lost Planet
7. Reckoning
8. Fear Itself
9. …In Love and War
10. Regime Change
11. Flight Club
12. Invasion
13. Homecoming

You can find the full press release for the Green Lantern: The Animated Series - Rise of the Red Lanterns below.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series — Rise of the Red Lanterns (Season 1 Part 1) follows Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps on a treacherous journey through deep space. As Earth’s Green Lantern, Hal must face down an invasion from the villainous Red Lantern Corps, who will stop at nothing to destroy and silence the Green Lantern Corps forever. Joined by his former drill sergeant Kilowog, and several all-new heroes, Hal brings the cosmic battle against the forces of evil to the far reaches of the galaxy. Equipped with a new squad and new spacecraft, The Inceptor, Hal and the team set out to protect the universe — and the Green Lantern Corps itself!

“Green Lantern: The Animated Series has really taken us into a realm we hadn’t explored before: our first completely CG-animated series,” enthuses Sam Register, Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs, at Warner Bros. Animation. “Like Teen Titans and Batman: The Animated Series, it’s an incredible, groundbreaking action series, combining the legendary instincts of Emmy®-winning executive producer Bruce Timm and the incredible artistry of WBA’s CG animators. It’s a beautifully rendered, epic space adventure with a scale that’s simply breathtaking.”

“With the release of the live-action movie last summer and the wildly popular Cartoon Network series, Green Lantern mania is at an all-time high,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Vice President of Family and Animation Marketing and Partner Brands. “Warner Bros. Animation is known for creating outstanding animated series, and we are thrilled to be able to bring these new super hero adventures to DVD.”

Executive produced by Sam Register (Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Ben 10), and Bruce Timm, Green Lantern: The Animated Series is produced by Giancarlo Volpe (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Jim Krieg (Ben 10: Alien Swarm). Based upon the popular DC Comics character, the series features the voice talents of Josh Keaton as Hal Jordan, Jason Spisak as Razer, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kilowog and Grey DeLisle as Aya. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Green Lantern: The Animated Series airs Saturdays at 10 a.m. (ET/PT) as part of Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block.

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Los Angeles Police Seek Help Finding "Carnivale" and "T3" Star Nick Stahl

Charles Webb — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:41:17 +0000

USA Today is reporting that the actor's wife reported him missing on Monday after having last seen him on May 9th. The actor has been estranged from his wife since January and court filings show that he's struggled with substance abuse problems resulting in restricted visitation rights with the couples' two-year-old daughter.

The actor, who played a carnie with a divine infernal destiny in HBO's depression-era drama Carnivale was also John Connor in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines along with playing the villain in the "That Yellow Bastard" segments of Sin City. Recently, he appeared in the pilot for Locke & Key as Duncan Locke.

Stahl is known to hang out in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, but so far there have been no reports regarding the actor's whereabouts. If you have any information about Stahl, you can contact the Los Angeles Police Department tip line at 1-877-LAPD 24-7.

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New Manga for the Week of May 16: FLCL Returns, New Saturn Apartments

alversob — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:30:43 +0000

It's a lean week for new manga releases, with just four new titles on the shelves, but there's a lot to like here: One of my favorite series gets a new volume and a vintage Tokyopop series is resurrected in an attractive omnibus format. There other two? Probably of interest mainly to enthusiasts, but there's some eye candy and an intriguing sci-fi plot in there.

This week's special treat is vol. 5 of Saturn Apartments, one of the most creative and interesting manga being published in English today. As I noted in my review of the first four volumes, Saturn Apartments is set in a ring-shaped apartment building that orbits the Earth. The apartments are literally stratified by class, with the working classes living in the dark bottom levels and the rich inhabiting airy, sunny loft apartments on the upper side of the ring. The hero of Saturn Apartments, Mitsu, is a window washer, so he travels not only through the different levels but also around the exterior, and one of the wonderful things about this book—besides the characters and their stories—is the way the characters inhabit the different spaces of the building. The manga is set up as a series of short stories, so this volume is as good a starting point as any.

From Dark Horse, we have vol. 11 of Bride of the Water God, a beautifully drawn manhwa (Korean comic), and the FLCL omnibus, which gathers the two-volume series into a single volume. Based on the anime of the same name, FLCL is a coming-of-age story wrapped in sci-fi and ecchi elements—giant robots, a crazy girl, a monolithic corporation. The manga was originally published by Tokyopop, and Dark Horse is advertising their version as having "remastered story pages," although it's not clear what that means.

Kodansha has just one release this week: vol. 3 of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, another anime tie-in. If you're following this, it's a good week, and if not, well, there are three solid alternatives to keep you busy.

And that's it. It's a slim week for manga, but what there is, is choice.

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ABC's Upfronts: Infernal Pacts, ETs Next Door, and Globe-trotting Mystery

Charles Webb — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:00:30 +0000

Yesterday during ABC's upfront presentation for the 2012-2013 season, the network revealed some of their upcoming genre programming. The big news here: Once Upon a Time is back for a second season. But the other story is that ABC is making a real commitment to hour-long content outside of the comedy/drama box. We've got synopses and thoughts on 666 Park Avenue, The Neighbors, and Zero Hour.

666 Park Avenue
The pitch: "It's The Devil's Advocate meets Fantasy Island!"

Synopsis: At the ominous address of 666 Park Avenue, anything you desire can be yours. Everyone has needs, desires and ambition. For the residents of The Drake, these will all be met, courtesy of the building's mysterious owner, Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn). But every Faustian contract comes with a price. When Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable), an idealistic young couple from the Midwest, are offered the opportunity to manage the historic building, they not only fall prey to the machinations of Doran and his mysterious wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams), but unwittingly begin to experience the shadowy, supernatural forces within the building that imprison and endanger the lives of the residents inside. Sexy, seductive and inviting, The Drake maintains a dark hold over all of its residents, tempting them through their ambitions and desires, in this chilling new drama that's home to an epic struggle of good versus evil.

What are its chances: Solid? I'm not sure here since there's no overarching mythology to hook viewers in each week, it might come off as more of an anthology series, something that hasn't really worked out well on networks for a while. Still, if ABC can inject the show with enough sex and violence, it might just hook the curious viewer looking for something interesting on basic TV.

The Neighbors
The pitch: "It's Aliens in America... with real aliens!"

Synopsis: How well do you know your neighbors?

Meet the Weavers, Debbie (Jami Gertz) and Marty (Lenny Venito). Marty, in hopes of providing a better life for his wife and three kids, recently bought a home in Hidden Hills, a gated New Jersey townhome community with its own golf course. Hidden Hills is so exclusive that a house hasn't come on the market in 10 years. But one finally did and the Weavers got it!

It's clear from day one that the residents of Hidden Hills are a little different. For starters, their new neighbors all have pro-athlete names like Reggie Jackson (Tim Jo), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Toks Olagundoye), Dick Butkis (Ian Patrick) and Larry Bird (Simon Templeman). Over dinner, Marty and his family discover that their neighbors receive nourishment through their eyes by reading books, rather than eating. The Weavers soon learn that the entire community is comprised of aliens from Zabvron, where the men bear children and everyone cries green goo from their ears.

The Zabvronians have been stationed on Earth for the past 10 years, disguised as humans, awaiting instructions from home, and the Weavers are the first humans they've had the opportunity to know. As it turns out, the pressures of marriage and parenthood are not exclusive to planet Earth. Two worlds will collide with hilarious consequences as everyone discovers they can "totally relate" and learn a lot from each other.

What are its chances: Eh, there's definitely a reverse Addams Family vibe to this—instead of being about the monsters moving in next door, it's about our human protagonists moving in and meeting the monsters (or aliens in this case). Kudos for bringing Jamie Gertz in for this one, but Lenny Venito is best taken in small doses. The first "illegal aliens" joke should translate into instant cancellation.

Zero Hour
The pitch: "Remember when ER star Noah Wyle did those Librarian movies? Then you'll love/like/consider, fellow ER star Anthony Edwards in Zero Hour!"

Synopsis: As the publisher of a paranormal enthusiast magazine, Modern Skeptic, Hank Galliston has spent his career following clues, debunking myths and solving conspiracies. A confessed paranormal junkie, his motto is "logic is the compass." But when his beautiful wife, Laila (Jacinda Barrett), is abducted from her antique clock shop, Hank gets pulled into one of the most compelling mysteries in human history, stretching around the world and back centuries.

Contained in one of his wife's clocks is a treasure map, and what it leads to could be cataclysmic. Now it's up to Hank to decipher the symbols and unlock the secrets of the map, while ensuring the answers don't fall into the wrong hands - a man they call White Vincent (Michael Nyqvist). With his two young associates, Rachel (Addison Timlin) and Arron (Scott Michael Foster), in tow, along with Becca Riley, a sexy FBI agent (Carmen Ejogo), Hank will lead them on a breathless race against the clock to find his wife and save humanity.

What are its chances: When your pitch says a character is being drawn into "one of the most compelling mysteries in human history," you'd better dang well compel. Right now it sounds like a lot of National Treasure-lite (although those movies did make loads of bank for parent company Disney), so it'll all hinge on the charisma of once and future nerd Anthony Edwards. Also, it's got Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol baddie/Millennium Trilogy star Michael Nyqvist, so that's got to stand for something, right?

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Review: The Incredible Marvel Select Hulk Figure From 'The Avengers' and DST

Lemonjuice McGee — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:30:08 +0000

Toy Fair 2012: DST's Marvel Select Figures

While Marvel Studios has made off with over a billion dollars of the world's currency thanks to their awesomely addicting film, "The Avengers", Diamond Select Toys has also decided to get a peace of the pie (sweet, sweet, money-flavored pie) with the latest release in their Marvel Select action figure line: The Hulk! He punched his way into comic and specialty stores last week, and like Juggernaut, Thing, Red Hulk, and the rest of DST's previous over-sized figure offerings, this movie-based Hulk is a hefty chunk of plastic that looks like he can dole out punishment to any of your figures-- or your friends, should you choose to throw that big hunk of green at them! We've had many Hulk figures in our day (including a smaller version from "The Avengers"), but will this one smash all of our lofty expectations? Read on to find out, as we review the DST Marvel Select Hulk!

Let's start things off with the bio from the back of the package for you folks that have yet to see "The Avengers" and/or don't know the basic origin of the Hulk. *cough*Losers!*cough*

When a scientific experiment involving the U.S. government's super-soldier program went wrong, scientist Bruce Banner was dosed with gamma radiation, triggering an uncontrollable physical transformation whenever he became stressed or angry. Growing in size and stature, Banner became the Hulk, a green-skinned behemoth who would lash out at whatever stood in his way. After years on the run from the U.S. military, learning to control his emotions and avoiding stressful situations, Banner was tracked down and recruited to the Avenger Initiative. Now he's their blunt instrument in the war to save humankind, as long as he can maintain his own humanity in the heat of combat.

The sculpt for this Hulk figure is very accurate to the computer-animated rage monster seen in the film. He clocks in at a little over 8 inches tall and towers over the other Marvel Select figures like Thor and Captain America, and even stands just above the previous MS Hulk-- although just barely, and he doesn't have nearly as much overall mass. In the movie, Bruce Banner is played by Mark Ruffalo and the animators added his features into the final version of the Hulk, and this figure's head sculpt shows that off perfectly. The hair on Hulk's head is actually a separate piece that has been applied after paint, and to our elation, it is on straight. From the veins in his chest, to the tattered pants, the body of the figure looks spot-on and we really can't find anything to fault.

In the paint department, Hulk comes off looking like a ~~million~~ billion bucks. Normally a figure like this would be molded in green plastic since that's his most prevalent color. However, it appears DST has gone a different route by molding the figure in what appears to be (after scratching through some of the paint with a razor knife) black plastic. The green of his akin has then been added, giving the figure the look of a black wash to show off the sculpted details. His familiar purple pants are present and accounted for and benefit from the same type of paint application. The face is particularly well done with clean applications to his eyes, brows, and especially his teeth and gums. The only problem with the paint is around the waist of his pants. Green is showing through in a couple of spots due to the purple not going on thick enough, and it seems kind of hurried. However, this isn't something that can be noticed from the shelf-- or if Hulk's fist is in embedded in your eye-socket.

The articulation on Hulk is pretty extensive for the Marvel Select line, and even moreso among his fellow oversized figures. The Hulk has a ball-joint neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, ball-joint torso, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, hinged knees, and swivel/hinge ankles which when combined, is one helluva articulation model! The joints all work well on our figure and Hulk has no trouble holding his position. Also, toppling over isn't much of a concern since he has been gifted with the incredible ankle articulation that we've been seeing on recent Marvel Legends. It's not all sunshine and purple pants though, since by keeping the hinge in the shoulder hidden from view on the top, it causes some loss in range of motion when posing the Hulk with his arms up in the air. Other than fixing that, our only personal suggestion to make this the perfect articulation model for one of these figures, would be the addition of hinges in the wrists.

While we're yet to find one of Hasbro's Wal-Mart Exclusive 6" scale version from "The Avengers" to give comparison, so far this figure of Bruce Banner's uglier side is one of the best Hulk figures to date-- regardless of the media it's based on. From the sculpt, to the articulation and size, this Green Goliath is worth your hard-earned green backs! For more info on this guy, plus tons of upcoming Marvel Select figures, be sure to check out Diamond Select Toys' official website!

Stay tuned to MTV Geek for all your Marvel Select and Avengers toy coverage!

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Battle Arena Otaku Fight! Fight!: And the Winner is...

Charles Webb — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:00:17 +0000

This is MTV Geek's Battle Arena Otaku Fight! Fight! A tournament-style, knock-down, drag-out, free-for-all, battle royale featuring your favorite anime, manga and Japanese pop-culture characters! Each arena match-up will be posted and voted on by you, the MTV Geek reader, and each winner will advance closer and closer to becoming the supreme reigning champion of the Battle Arena Otaku! Who will take the top spot? There's only way to find out…FIGHT! FIGHT!

It's been a long road to this point, after 64 competitors, over 429,000 total votes, 3,000 tweets, countless Facebook comments, stunning international support (including a crazy amount of Brazilian fans turning up!), one very aggressive Lizard and some very, very tight races (and some not so tight), you've decided on the winner of the grand first annual Battle Arena Otaku. In our final matchup between Luffy from One Piece and Voltron, the winner is...

MONKEY D. LUFFY!

And don't think it wasn't close, either, perhaps one of the most closely contested contests in the entire Battle Arena, with Voltron garnering 48.3% of the vote to Luffy's 51.7%. And that's out of nearly 93,000 votes from you, dear readers. It was neck and neck right up to the wire with each character repeatedly taking the lead over the other until finally, at 11:59:59pm EDT Luffy made it out on top! So, if there's something to take away from our big winner here, it's that in life, you should be adventurous, brave, and most importantly, flexible if you want a chance at winning.

This kind of makes a nice 15th birthday present for the character, who made his debut back in an August 1997 issue of Shonen Jump, remaining in publication consistently throughout the last decade and a half. He and his crew have been wildly popular in both the original manga as well as the anime it later spawned. And let's not forget the toys, the video games, and the feature films (along with a a handful of OVAs, to boot). Luffy is a character that you know (and apparently love) enough to vote for him in droves.

A couple of Battle Arena fanatics even submitted some awesome fan art featuring the nail-biting final battle! Check it out:

By: Evangelia Giannakopoulos

By: Paulo Carabuena (@akosijpac on Twitter)

Special thanks goes out to the following companies and Tweeters for their help and support promoting, debating and getting involved with Battle Arena Otaku:

@FUNimation, @Voltron, @VIZMedia, @THQ, @RobotechNews/Robotech.com, MattyCollector @SethGreen, @ClareGrant @GodzillaSays, @Teen_Minilla, @PixelDan, @OnePiecePodcast and any and all fans who voted, tweeted, Facebooked and shared! Thank you for keeping it interesting, and for helping us inaugurate the first annual Battle Arena Otaku! You made this great!

And we ain't done yet! Next year we will unleash BATTLE ARENA OATKU FIGHT! FIGHT!: THE REVENGE!

But for now, congratulations to the first Battle Arena Otaku champion, MONKEY D. LUFFY!

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The Top 10 Dictators In Comics

Alex Zalben — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:34 +0000

Dictators: they’re the lovable leaders we’re required to love! In real life, they may be nobody’s favorite; but in comic books, they can go to extremes to rule with an iron fist (sometimes literally), and we cackle at their extreme villainy. Here are ten of the best dictators in the history of comic books. Oh, and just for ground rules, we tried to avoid benevolent rulers, cause that’s no fun:

10. Black Adam
The evil version of Captain Marvel (or Shazam, if you prefer current continuity), Teth-Adam was an Egyptian Prince granted the powers of the wizard Shazam. Nearly invulnerable, and completely ruthless, he nevertheless rules the Middle Eastern country of Khandaq fairly, as that’s the country – and people – of his birth. And the people actually love him more than fear him… Though anyone who even thinks of transgressing in his borders will probably find themselves with one less arm… Or head.

9. Namor
Marvel’s King of The Seas is a jerk. Even a self professed one, but that’s mostly because he rules over most of the Earth… Just the underwater part, but that’s still most of the surface area of our fair globe, so he’s earned the right to be a little pretentious. There have been multiple coups over the years, disposing Namor from his perch, but he always manages to come back, leading the sunken Atlantean people – and attacking the surface world for every time he helps them out.

8. Bomb Queen
The villainous ruler of New Port City, Bomb Queen killed every superhero in the city, and then turned it into a haven for every kind of depraved villainy you can imagine – and some you wouldn’t want to.

7. Maestro
In the alternate future timeline of Peter David’s classic story “Future Imperfect,” the Hulk is an insane madman ruling over what’s left of humanity. Calling himself The Maestro, he does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. This includes torturing a version of himself from the past, breaking his own neck, and forcing him to cheat on his wife. Not something we would do to ourselves, but hey, we’re not a crazy irradiated gamma monster.

6. Supreme Intelligence
The Kree Supreme Intelligence is a combination of alien brains in a jar that rules over the entire interstellar Kree Empire. It has incredible powers, like the ability to see the future, and control minds. But most of all, it’s a gigantic floating green energy face, and hey, wouldn’t you bow down before that? We know we would.

5. The Governor
The maniacal ruler of the town of Woodbury in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, The Governor is a brutal madman – and in a world overrun by the living dead who feast on human flesh, that’s saying something. He holds gladiatorial games for his amusement, makes out with his own zombified daughter, and tortures and kills a metric ton of the heroes of the book. Can’t wait to relax on Sunday nights and watch his adventures on TV, you guys!

4. Geppetto
For the first half of Vertigo’s Fables series, we wondered who the enigmatic Adversary was, who had managed to take over most of the storybook kingdoms of the Homelands, and force our heroes out to Fabletown. Turns out it was none other than kindly old woodworker Geppetto, who – along with an army of wooden puppets – had become the driven ruler of all fictional worlds.

3. The Friend
In Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, The Friend starts as a “simple” cult leader… But using a “book of prophecy” – really just the scribblings of a bunch of kids in a notebook – he proceeds to kill a good chunk of the world’s population, and then takes over Japan. All of this, though, is second only to his ultimate plan, to destroy the entire world. Not gonna have much to rule then, huh buddy?

2. Darkseid
The ruler of the death planet of Apokolips, Darkseid is… Well, he’s not a very nice guy. His entire planet is devoted to destruction, death, and enslavement – and his whole life is devoted to finding the Anti-Life Equation, a formula that would allow him to enslave the entire Universe. Though he’s often stopped by the Justice League, he’s managed to hold on to ruling an entire evil planet pretty much since he was first introduced into comics. We’d say that’s a pretty successful dictatorship.

1. Doctor Doom
Though it could be argued that Darkseid is more successful in his evil, Doctor Doom is – and will always be – our first thought when we think of comic book dictators. He fulfills all the requirements for a great dictator: a small country of worshipful/fearful subjects; frequent clashes with outside countries, but still able to visit them on a regular basis due to diplomatic immunity; and a literal iron fist. Plus, just look at his name: when you’re called Doctor Doom, you’re never going to get elected in a democracy… Dictatorship is really your only option.

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"The Situation" To Make First Comic Convention Appearance

Valerie Gallaher — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:10:29 +0000

There's going to be a Situation in Chicago this August, as Jersey Shore's Mike Sorrentino makes his first comic con appearance ever! Sitch will be appearing at Wizard World's Chicago Comic Con 2012, part of his partnership deal with the company that also includes creating a comic book of himself. This will probably be just one of many personal appearances The Situation will be making for Wizard World...let's hope he appears as his superhero alter-ego real soon!

For just a measly $199, Jersey Shore fans can opt to buy the special "Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino VIP Experience" at the convention, which guarantees them an autograph and photo opp...as well as a "speed pass" for easy access to the TV personality.

The Situation rubbing shoulders with Batman cosplayers and the likes of William Shatner, Stan Lee, and Sean Young? Well, sign me up!

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The Daily Geek - Frank Castle, Terrifying Fish, the Zodiac Killer, Marvel Slapstick and more!

Eddie Wright — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:32:52 +0000

Welcome to MTV Geek's daily round-up of all things GEEK from the weird, wild world of the web! Got a cool link? Share it with us on Twitter at twitter.com/mtvgeek!

ART! Frank Castle by Rafael Albuquerque (via Keane on Comics)

ROAD WARRIOR! Lord Humungus appears on a local news show to promote the Rolling Roadshow Road Warrior demolition derby.

GEEK TWEETS! Who are the 100 geeks you should be following on Twitter?

WAR GAMES! Here are 10 video games that heat up Cold War tensions!

NEVER SLEEP AGAIN! This fish exists!

QUOTE OF THE DAY! Joel McHale tells The Hollywood Reporter:

"Community fans I think are a special breed. They’re like X-Men. They’re mutants. They’re more evolved than other human beings."

THIS IS THE ZODIAC SPEAKING! A new book says the Zodiac Killer is alive and well! (via BuzzFeed)

HUMAN GUINEA PIG! What are the 5 scariest things about being a human test subject?

THIS ALSO EXISTS! A Watchmen toaster!

VID! This super-cartoony, slapstinky vid featuring Marvel characters by Junaid Chundrigar is fantastic! (via Super Punch)

'Til tomorrow, gang!

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Geoff Johns And Jim Lee Tease A New Green Lantern, Pandora, Trinity War, and More!

Valerie Gallaher — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:52:23 +0000

Geoff Johns and Jim Lee Discuss Vol. 2 of Justice League

MTV Geek got a chance to catch up with Justice League creative team Geoff Johns and Jim Lee while they were in town to sign copies of the recent hardcover collection -- and they teased a bunch of upcoming developments in the DC Universe you're going to want to know about! In the above clip, Johns talks about a new Green Lantern who will be appearing in Justice League soon...

"You're going to see in the coming year for Justice League new members; you'll see characters like Shazam, Element Woman, and a new Green Lantern that was first teased back in New Comic Book Day. And we'll see more of him in the Green Lantern comic books very very soon."

Meanwhile, Jim Lee talked about the mysterious Pandora and her significance to the upcoming Trinity War event next year. Lee also dropped an intriguing hint about the identity of one of the Trinity of Sin, who has a blank face and is "always questioning things."

Let me make that a little easier for you: "...always Questioning things."

Geoff Johns and Jim Lee on Pandora and the Trinity of Sin

Finally, check out footage from Johns and Lee's Justice League Hardcover signing at Midtown Comics last week:

Justice League HC Signing Event At Midtown Comics

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What's New With Doctor Who: Avengers UK, River Song's Sexual Preference, and Karen Gillan On Community!

Alex Zalben — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:00:59 +0000

Welcome to our time-traveling, space-warping round up of all the news we could find about the world’s most popular Timelord, Doctor Who. And there’s a ton of news to get through because, remember: this article is bigger on the inside.

ITEM! New Who Premieres This August!
...If you're lucky enough to be in Edinburgh, that is. The first episode of the new season of Who will premiere for the Edinburgh International Television Festival, presented by none other than Steven Moffat himself - as part of a master class on Sherlock Holmes (confusing, right?). Still that does seem to indicate that the new season will be premiering on BBC/BBC America soon after that, possibly even the beginning of September. That would mean the first five episodes would run into October, then a break until the Christmas episode, which makes sense to us. Fingers crossed, we should have news on a true premiere date soon.

ITEM! River Song Flows Both Ways
The Internet had a mild brain aneurysm the other day, when Steven Moffat tweeted the above in regards to a conversation about what the Doctor would think of gay marriage. After clarifying he would probably be a little busy with not caring, and the time travel, he added in that both Jack Harkness and River Song were Bi, and then everyone freaked out. Missing the point: IT DOESN'T MATTER.

TOYS! Karen and Matt Meet Their Makers
Idle Hands took some shots of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan hanging out with their toy counterparts, and they are, of course, adorable. Sigh. I'm gonna miss these guys (well, just Gillan).

ASSEMBLE! Tea-Time Avengers Make Internet Debut
Good lord, we would watch the heck out of this. The only thing it's missing is Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey, don't you think? "I have an army." "We have a Dowager Countess."

GRAPH! The Queen Is A Timelord, Right?
We might replace Top Gear with "Harry Potter" there, but otherwise: accurate.

EXFOLIATE! Dalek Planter Is Combo of Plant and Machine
Now someone just needs to make an egg container, and those beaters will be explained. There's also this Dalek made from old machine parts, if you're needing more Daleks:

SPACETIME! Karen Gillan Wants To Be On Community
Minds: blown. Karen Gillan, in the below video, says she wants to be on Inspector Spacetime, the show within a show on Community. There's even a Twitter hashtag, #AmyMeetsAbed. So... We know what we'll be tweeting the rest of the day:

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