When camels come, they come not single spies but in battalions

A town in Australia’s Northern Territory has been besieged by legions of thirsty camels, The Times reports.

Residents of Docker River, NT, are even now trembling in their homes as a thundering herd of feral dromedaries lays waste to their town in search of liquid sustenance.

Townsfolk first noticed the vanguard of the humpbacked horde in October, as a few desperate dromedaries sought respite from Australia’s endless drought. As the weeks wore on, the thirsty beasts gradually swelled in number, cracking open fire hydrants and moisture condensers in an attempt to slake their burning thirst.

“Some people are opening their windows and all they see is camels,” Graham Taylor, chief executive of the MacDonnell Shire Council, told The Times.

Taylor has secured emergency funding from Northern Territory’s local government to hire helicopter-borne marksmen in an effort to exterminate the marauders from the air.

However, reports have emeged that a division of camels has seized control of the local airport, “causing problems with medical evacuations.”

“More and more keep arriving! The numbers are building daily!” Taylor screamed into a shortwave radio, moments before he was replaced by the sinister hiss of static.

Camels were introduced to the antipodes in the mid-nineteenth century in an attempt to tame the arid interior. Having lately cast off the shackles of human bondage, the creatures have successfully established a feral population that is estimated to exceed a million in number.

Through wanton environmental destructiveness, they have earned themselves an A$19m price on their heads. But if this month’s developments are any guide, the Australian federal government has had its work cut out.

It seems as though DC Comics will try their hand with a forray into the zombie world with ‘Blackest Night’. The Publisher has commenced the story which will be the climax to the Sinestro Corps War (green lantern) story arc.

Blackest night will be more of a solid arc for DC, rather than the tongue in cheek Marvel Zombies graphic novels. The first edition was released In June of this year and will run until spring next year. If DC can nail this, it could potentially release the stranglehold that Marvel has on the comic book market.

Marvel are coming to the end of the Dark Reign storyline which led directly from Secret Invasion. The events of Dark Reign will come to a climax during the new years ‘Siege’ story. Brian Michael Bendis has gone on record to say that after the events of siege, there won’t be another massive event that will encompass the whole of the Marvel universe like Reign, writers will be concentrating more on individual characters’ storylines.

If Blackest night performs well in stores it could pave the way for DC to capitalise on the gap left by Marvel for a long running crossover event and bag DC some much-needed new readers.

Hey all, today we’re going to revisit Isle of Conquest guide, because my old guide was written the same week the BG came out, and I didn’t have as much info then as I do now. Let’s see what’s what now that I have a little more perspective.

As we should all know by now, IoC is won by defeating the opposing team’s general or running them totally out of resources. The latter method of winning is almost impossible and should never be attempted. If one were forced to attempt this by mysterious and unimaginable forces, I would suggest capping the oil refinery and quarry and trying to defend them, because they act like the mines do in Alterac Valley and award resources to whichever team controls them. These 2 nodes have a much more important function, and that is increasing the siege damage you do. Even if one is trying to win by the standard method of breaking down a wall and killing the general, I wouldn’t expend too much effort in capping these nodes. Checking to see if one of them is undefended and capping it over if it is would the most I would do. This isn’t to say they aren’t useful, it’s just that there’s more useful things you can do (see below).

The other 3 nodes all help you break down the opposing team’s wall more directly. The dock and workshop give you vehicles. The dock’s vehicles are much better, so you should try to cap the dock at all costs. If you fail to capture the dock, then wait till the other team captures it and suicide attack their glaive throwers until they have none left. Then try to recap the dock and use your glaives on their wall. Please don’t touch the glaive if you’ve never done it before, as you will drastically reduce your team’s chance of winning. Simply hop in a catapult and send yourself into the enemy keep and grab bombs from the pile to sabotage the keep’s defenses from the inside. If you think you can handle the glaive thrower, then get in one and start shooting down the west wall of whichever keep you’re trying to get into. Be aware that the glaives have huge range and you should take the time to position them in a place that is as far from the enemy keep as possible. You should also try and put your glaive in a place where it can’t be attacked by people who are hiding behind a hill or under a bridge and shooting through the terrain. The glaives have very low hp so all this effort is crucial to your success. Try to encourage your teammates to defend the glaives once you have them.

Now, the workshop is useless because the dock’s vehicles are way better, but how about the hangar? The fact is that by using the hangar to get your entire team into the enemy keep at the start of the fight, you can bring down a wall faster than you would using any other means. However, this requires a lot of coordination and so I wouldn’t bother with this strat unless you have an organized group. Also, controlling at least one of the 2 nodes that enhance your team’s siege damage would be useful if you really wanted to pull this off. Unless you are in a team that is group queuing this BG, I would never ever ever bother with the hangar, as it is a complete waste of time in a pug.

If you like to defend, then you can hop in the turrets that line the ramparts of each keep. Trying to kill these turrets is futile because any friendly player can make a turret respawn with full hp instantly simply by right-clicking it.

That re-sums up Isle of Conquest!

-Jurgwena

Certains évènements redonnent vie à des photos sans importance

Siège d’Orascom sur les rives du Nil

Cairo / Egypt

Photographies Ashraf Kessaissia

This past week has been a pretty constructive week for me; I have hit level 39, am 65% away from 40, hit 281 tailoring, 295 ground gathering, and found a great new legionary home with Coven Nex, who are ranked 5th in Abyss Rankings! With my newfound friends in legion, and of course my old ones, I`ve been racking up the kills and AP as well as honing in my pvp skills as a sorc. Sorc may seem like a target-and-nuke-the-living-daylights-out-of-it pvp class but there is so much more to it than that! It will take awhile to get the hang of everything there is to master on sorc.

To kick off my recent joining with Coven Nex (CN) I went to the Sulfur Fortess siege Saturday night with them and we took over the fort. Yay! It seemed very well organized by CN and gave a very good first impression on the legion. As for the siege itself, my first ever, I really had no idea what was going on. We started by attacking the gate into the castle, much like L2 castle sieges, and moved inside and down into the dungeon-type area to kill the General. By the time I realized I had a defending NPC targeted and had been nuking it, the General was already down to about 25%, so I sort of didn`t contribute much.. at all. It was still fun though, a nice sort-of bonding experience with my new legion and a good start to get me familiarized with how things work.

On top of spending more time in the abyss, I`ve been trying to catch more rifts lately. Rifts are something I really enjoy for several reasons including exploring new areas and fighting the enemy on their turf. Hopping through a rift in a barren snowy landscape and getting spit out into a lush jungle with aggroing flowers and dinosaurs is a fun change. Add in the fact that you have no clue where you are, or at the most some vague idea from online maps (unless you`ve been through it before of course) and there`s a huge sense of adventure as well as metal gear solid (MGS) since you are ultimately there to kill the enemy.

With how much pvp I`ve been doing lately, I`m surprised at how many of my friends don`t know what a pvp text radar is and therefore do not have one. I cannot stress how much of a benefit having a text radar is. Not only will it give you a bit of an edge so you`re slightly prepared for what`s coming, it will also give you the names of your enemies so that if you are able to alt+tab or have a 2nd computer, you can look the person up and see all sorts of useful information.

So how does one make this pvp text radar? Click on the “Chat Preferences Menu” on your chat box and select “Add Tab”. You can name it anything you want, mine is called PvP. Uncheck all of the boxes for Chat, Channel, Combat-Self, Combat-Group, and System Information then go into Combat-Others and check the boxes beside everything that starts with “Enemy`s”. Enemy`s Attack. Enemy`s Attack Skills. Enemy`s Buff Skills. Enemy`s Periodic Effects. Enemy`s Defense. Then change the color of these to something that will catch your. Again my personal preference is straight up red. Once your done click “Change” and your new tab is created, but you`re not done yet! Click and hold the tab`s name and drag it out onto your screen somewhere, put it in a place where you`ll see it. If there is no pvp or hasn`t been any for a while, the chat box will fade away and not hinder your screen, but when there is, it will pop up there.

Using this has saved my life so many times, and the lives of my friends who I`ve shown how to make it. Whenever you see “Shadowas restored his flight time by 48.” or “Shungokusatsu is in the Hide I state.” or “Wren uses Zikel`s Wisdom.” you know something is coming and can be ready for it.

That’s right, folks. Desiato is back and ready to talk some Marvel.

Spoilers abound for this one.

I’ve done this previously for Dark Reign and War of Kings, and I thought, as the resident Marvel guy lurking in the shadows of a generally DC heavy comic review blog, this is the perfect time to make a triumphant (but most likely short lived) comeback to the world of read/RANT. So let’s talk some Marvel. More specifically, let’s talk SIEGE. Bendis! Coipel! Only four issues! It’s got a strong chance of being pretty awesome. Time to break it down, see where we’ve been and where we’re going, specifically pertaining to the last two months or so of Dark Reign continuity.

As a quick proviso, this article is going to focus on Norman Osborne. To find out what’s going on with the rest of the Cabal, I’m going to be putting up a sort of “Where are they now?” article on my own blog, Musings of the Alpha Primitive. This is partially to be self-serving, and partially because I don’t want this article to be 4,000 words long. That should be posted in a week or so, and I’ll probably update this article with the link when I’ve done it.

By the time folks read this, Dark Avengers #11 will most likely have been released. It comes out on Wednesday. I get my books online through Discount Comic Book Service (the best folks in the planet in many ways), and will not be receiving my copy until the end of the month (which, while lame, is a hell of a lot better than paying cover price).So bear in mind that this Siege preview is being written without the added detail of anything that happened in that issue.

So let’s talk about the most recent pertinent points first. We’ve navigated through just about all of The List. I remember when the list was announced, I was perturbed by the idea of 8 $4 one-shots coming out within a month or two. I wasn’t going to buy them. At the time, I was enjoying, but not totally enamored with Dark Reign. But then I saw the creative teams. Fraction and Davis on X-Men. Bendis and Djurdjevik on Avengers. Remender and JRJR on Punisher. Hickman and Ed McGuinness on Secret Warriors. These are stacked creative teams that are worthy of a $4 purchase (or, in my case, about $2.20 thanks to DCBS). And they were all great. I didn’t read Daredevil and didn’t order Spider-Man because I don’t read those ongoings. But maybe I should have, considering the quality of the other books (and I’m sure I’m going to pick them up during con season on the cheap next year). The List rekindled my interest in Dark Reign.

Add to that the monumental achievement that was World’s Most Wanted, Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca’s world-spanning Iron Man epic that has taken a year to tell (and, honestly, how often do you see twelve issue story arcs these days, especially in ongoing titles?), and Dark Reign has kicked into overdrive. Norman Osborne’s armor is weakening. His hold on the world and his own sanity is slipping. The members of the Cabal are splintering, creating their own alliances against Norman and HAMMER. Everything is coming to a head. Siege is, as some of us know thanks to J Michael Straczynski, at its core the siege of Asgard. We know this, because this is apparently why JMS left the Thor book, because he didn’t want to deal with the crossover. We also know a few other things based on some teaser images that have been released in the past few weeks.

1. Asgard is in trouble. One of the teaser images that has been released is the picture of a burning Asgard plummeting to the ground. It’s still in Oklahoma, and the neighboring sleepy town looks to be in trouble (considering that Asgard is landing directly in the center of it). Considering that the whole point of Siege is Norman Osborne storming Asgard, nothing about this should come as a surprise. But let’s keep some things in mind. First, the Asgardians as we know them are not actually in Asgard right now. Loki, Baldur, basically everyone but Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three are currently in Latveria. Secondly, considering the last panel of World’s Most Wanted, featuring Donald Blake in his Oklahoma hotel room alongside Pepper Potts, Captain America (Bucky) and Black Widow, and that Blake has power of attorney in Tony Stark’s living will and is presumably going to get him, there’s a decent chance that the BIG THREE (and I mean big three, as Cap Reborn should be wrapping up to the extent that I fully expect Steve Rogers to be back with the shield by the beginning of Siege) will be using Asgard as their headquarters/staging ground preparing for some kind of attack on Osborne when he brings the heat to Oklahoma. One would assume that the big three will also bring in folks like the Mighty Avengers to join the cause (probably the X-Men too, but I don’t know if the scope of the book is such that they want everyone involved).

2. Norman Osborne has a secret weapon. This goes all the way back to Dark Reign: The Cabal, and the shadowy figure that Norman’s been using to keep the rest of the Cabal in line. There has been much speculation, and now we’ve got two pieces of information to help us narrow some things down. The first is a teaser image of Norman surrounded by seven pictures and a “WHO IS NORMAN OSBORNE’S SECRET WEAPON?” tag line at the top, and the second is the end to Dark Avengers #10. These are obviously linked, considering that three of the characters are in both images. Let’s take a look at who’s on the teaser image first to get a sense of the possibilities.
2a. Thanos. No chance in hell. This is a red herring. One, the fact that they specifically chose an image of Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet is too loaded of an image. Take also into consideration the utter arrogance of Thanos, and that there’s no way he would ever go along with someone like Osborne. Plus, there’s the fact that he’s dead. And Abnett and Lanning would probably be a little annoyed if one of the supreme cosmic characters of the Marvel universe suddenly shows up parading around a crossover on earth. Odds: Eleventy-billion to one
2b. Odin. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m getting the no chance in hells out of the way first. Most of the reasoning behind Thanos can also be attributed to Odin. He’s arrogant, and would be exceedingly unlikely to consider Osborne an equal deserving of his time. He’s also dead, and while he did hold a grudge against Thor for not resurrecting him after the most recent Ragnarok, they reconciled during the two issue Thorsleep arc in JMS’ run. Not gonna happen. Odds: 200,000,000,000 to one
2c. Nate Grey. X-Man, eh? So I’m not reading many of the X books. I’m reading Uncanny, but that’s basically it. Dark X-Men seems to be the book that features the return of X-Man, and while I probably should have bought it considering that Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk are piloting the series. Nate’s an omega level mutant, and he’s one of the many folks in this teaser that can actively alter reality. From my perspective, Nate Grey lacks the punch that would be needed to really make Siege pop. Not enough folks would really get enough out of Nate Grey being the big secret baddie. It’s more plausible than Odin or Thanos, but it’s definitely unlikely. Odds: 999 to one
2d. Mephisto. See, now we’re talking. Mephisto has some definite possibilities. He’s definitely shown that he’ll work with anyone if the price is right. And Norman’s definitely crazy enough to have no compunction to make a deal with the devil. Some folks have been attempting to make a link between Mephisto as Norman’s secret weapon and the events of One More Day as a sort of kill two birds situation. I don’t see that happening. Personally, Mephisto’s up there. He works perfectly well in this situation. He could legitimately keep folks in line. Plus, he’s in the last panel of issue ten of Dark Avengers (for the information of those not in the know, Dark Avengers 10 ends with a double page spread featuring Norman Osborne being confronted by a new Dark Cabal consisting of Enchantress, Zarathos, Mephisto, The Beyonder, and Molecule Man on a throne of skulls). Odds: 10 to one
2e. Molecule Man. Molecule Man has some potential and some problems. Rich Johnston leaked some things about Norman’s secret weapon having the MM initials, which certainly points to Molecule Man, but one would think that if this were the case, you might not necessarily give that away at the end of Dark Avengers. But Molecule Man was certainly in power, especially considering his sitting on a throne of skulls and all, and if he can exert his will to dominate folks like Mephisto and The Beyonder, we should probably watch the hell out. Sure, he’s not necessarily dominating these folks, but he’s definitely in the place of power. Of course, there’s also the fact that Norman is completely insane and could be imagining it all. But, if he is imagining it all, is he doing it for a reason? Is it because he’s worried he could lose control of his secret weapon? Hard to say, but I think Molecule Man is, in a way, a little too good of a fit. He doesn’t have a strong personality, and could easily be convinced by Osborne to be his ace in the hole. Odds: 7 to one
2f. The Beyonder. It seems to be the case that Bendis has been itching to use the Beyonder in some capacity. New Avengers: Illuminati #3 was all about The Beyonder. There was heavy speculation that he was pulling the strings during Secret Invasion. He’s been on the cusp of involvement for a while, and he would absolutely scare the shit out of the other Cabal members (and extra points for having a specific grudge with Doom). Of course, this could easily be Bendis continuing to mess with us by dangling The Beyonder just out of reach; only this time he’s actually appearing on panel. I like The Beyonder as the secret weapon. I think it works well. A mix of the old and the new. Personally, this would be my choice, though I don’t necessarily think it’s the most likely. Odds: 4 to one
2g. Scarlet Witch. When was the last time we saw Bendis and Coipel working together on a big project? House of M. COINCIDENCE?!?!?! The return of Scarlet Witch would bring quite a few things full circle. It would play off Loki’s recent actions in Mighty Avengers. Hawkeye would continue to go nuts, especially considering New Avengers #26. Scarlet Witch, in many ways, started the ball rolling. She’s the most unstable of the reality-alterers in the mix. She would scare anyone into service, because she’s capable of anything. House of M proved that. Much like Molecule Man, this might be too perfect. But Scarlet Witch has been off the table for a long time, and this might be a worthy moment for her return. Odds: 3 to one
2h. Someone else. There are other possibilities. Dormammu, for one, as he does have ties to The Hood, who’s probably been the most on Osborne’s side throughout most of Dark Reign. The Void would manage to not only keep the Cabal in line, but would also act as a safety net to cover The Sentry. Marvelman was a popular guess after Rich Johnston’s MM leak, but I think it’s too soon for Marvelman to hit the main Marvel U. I’d like to believe it’s one of the folks on the teaser, and that it’s not a bait and switch situation.

3. Some flying shadow dude. There’s another teaser image of a shadowed figure flying above New York City as the denizens of the city look on in a mixture of shock, awe, and terror. We all assume that this enshadowed figure is Norman’s secret weapon, though much of that could be because those two teasers were released at the same time. So who is it? The Beyonder with his white disco coat blowing in the wind like a cape? Scarlet Witch? The Void? Sentry? Who knows? What I do know is that I dig the image and it further whets my appetite for some Siege goodness.

Is there more to cover? Yeah, probably. But we’re going on 2,100 plus words now, so I think I’ve done enough damage in my return. If you want the lowdown on Dark Reign and Siege, make sure you’re following Dark Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, Utopia, and The List. That’ll help out the most for the major story points. And once again, keep a look out for my article on the Cabal over at Musings of the Alpha Primitive (yeah, I plugged it again).  You stay classy, read/RANT

Siege (Marvel Comics) February 2009 Solicits

Siege Event - Fall of Asgard

I am so excited about Siege. It is the only event that will feature the Thor and ultimately the fall of Asgard. Add in the Dark Avengers (to be honest I’m only excited about more Thor and Ares interaction) and the New Avengers and you’ve got me hook, line, and sinker.

Besides Siege’s focus on Thor, the Cabal, and the Dark Avengers (I think the cover for Dark Avengers 14 confirmed Sentry’s death), I’m really looking forward to Secret Warriors and Guardian of the Galaxy (Yah for evil Adam Warlock).

Algunos gustos van de la mano; el alcohol y el tabaco, el cine y las palomitas, los tacos y las salsas, los automoviles y los accidentes… olviden eso último..

Los gamers (ok, tal vez no todos) tenemos otro vicio además de los videojuegos: Los comics.

Mediante el presente, declarome fanatico de los comics y las aventuras de los heroesy sus luchas contra los villanos que intentan una y otra vez destruir el universo.

Los videojuegos y los comics han tenido una relación simbiotica de la cual se han visto beneficiadas ambas partes. Voy a enlistar a algunos de mis superheroes favoritos y los videojuegos en los que han aparecido:

Spider-Man

¿Recuerdan que le mencioné un juego de Spider-Man para el Atari? Pues así se veía:

Sí. Ese que se cuelga es tu amistoso vecino

Ese fue el primer juego en el que el trepamuros lucho contra el crimen. Y el crimen era entonces muy insitente. Siempre atacaba el mismo edificio una y otra y otra vez hasta que apagabas el atari.

Hoy, el aracnido se ve así:

Como ha cambiado Nuew York

Mi juego favorito de SpiderMan es: SpiderMan & Venom: Maximum Carnage

Era un juego de estilo Final Fight basado en un crossover de los comics de SpiderMan en el cual Carnage decidió que era buena idea pintar la ciudad de color rojo sangre. SpiderMan y algunos otros heroes pensaron que Carnage no es tan buen pintor y tuvieron que detenerlo.

Esa saga es sin duda alguna, una de las peores que le ha pasado al aracnido. Es mala como la chingada (y miren que la chingada es muy, muy, pero muy mala) pero el juego era muy bueno y bastante entretenido.

Lo primero que llamaba la atención era el color del cartucho

Venom, el protector letal

Superman:

Otro heroe que ha pasado por los videojuegos es el hombre de acero y lo hizo en su peor momento personal: la muerte.

Doomsday puede romper el acero

Este juego también era del estilo Final Fight y controlabas a los 5 “Supermanes”. La historía estaba apegada a las sagas de 1992-1993 “La muerte de Superman”, “El reino de los Superman” y “El regreso de Superman” en las cuales se muestran los eventos desde la aparición de Doomsday hasta que Superman regresa de la muerte. En las misiones del juego controlabas a los “supermanes” y cada uno tenía movimientos similares pero cada uno tenía un poder especial único. El juego paso sin pena ni gloria pero a diferencia de Maximum Carnage, el saga en los comics fue un éxito e incluso hubo repercusiones en la historia del universo DC que se observan hoy en día.

Dato de trivia: Uno de los supermanes destruyó Ciudad Costera, la ciudad que protege Linterna Verde. Esta destrucción causo el evento “Emerald Twilight” o “Crepusculo Esmeralda” en el cual fue destruido el planeta Oa, en el centro del universo DC, lo cual ocasionó un agujero en el espacio el cual llevaba al universo Marvel y a partir de ahí empezaron a ocurrir los crossovers entre los superheroes de ambos universos y la macrosaga Mavel vs DC.

Estoy omitiendo el asqueroso Superman 64 del cual no pienso hablar más.

La liga de la justicia entró al mundo de los juegos que jamas debieron existir… mucho antes pelear contra los personajes de Mortal Kombat.

Justice League: Task Force era un juego de peleas en el cual la historía era tan mala como comerte un kilo de carne que se quedó fuera del refrigerador por 1 mes.

Yo lo jugué y no me gustó...

¿La historía…? Eliges a un heroe y peleas contra la liga de la justicia… que en realidad son robots, vences a Darkseid y liberas a los demás heroes. No está basado en ninguna saga.. sólo se los comenté por que normalmente (igual que los basados en películas) los juegos basados en comics son muy malos.

Este punto me llevá al siguiente juego: X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Sí, esa es mi mano. Sí, ese es mi juego

El juego se basa ligeramente en la película que se basa en nada del personaje salvo en el nombre y los poderes mutantes. Lapelícula es una de las cosas que prefieres olvidar que existieron o que si quiera alguién leyó y aprobó el guión de esa aberración!!!

ok, apagó mi modo fanboy…. de comics.. no de video juegos.

La película en cuestión surge debido a la polularidad que ha gozado el personaje casí desde que apareció en el #180 del Increíble Hulk. Desde hace unos años se empezó a definir el verdadero origen de este personaje y a mi gusto, ha sido uno de las mejores sagas de Marvel. Wolverine Origins establece los puntos que han definido la personalidad de “Logan” y los dramas y tragedias que lo han llevado a ocultar lo que realmente es: Un asesino y el mejor en lo que hace.

La película no le llega al comic y les pido por favor que alguién me golpee cuando la quiera comprar en DVD.

Otros heroes han pasado por las consolas: Captain America (recientemente muerto y en vías de resurrección), Punisher, Iron Man y por supuesto: Batman.

Pero ese... merece un post dedicado solo a él

Ya como último comentario; les recomiendo que lean comics y que lo hagan a diario

Actualmente DC tiene una gran saga llamada Blackest Night y Marvel está por arrancar Siege.

¿Alguno de ustedes es fan de los comics?

Photo credit I The Truth behind 26/11 – Mumbai

I’m totally ready to crash…  Had somethin’ to post yesterday but I put it off for the sake of sleep, so I can’t do that tonight, lol…  Anywho, shortly after getting 30 I rushed my way to 32 so I could equip my Inferno.  Big thanks to my lil’ bro Reina for the help with the mobs at the cauldron an’ the viragos.  I swear, the bots are out of control in that area…  Leveling through there the first time around was quick, there wasn’t anyone in the area an’ there were plenty of mobs to take down.  Now, however… definitely not the case.

An’ as if auto-farm bots weren’t enough we now have gathering bots in Eltnen, harvesting ores an’ herbs!  What really pisses me off is when you’re extracting a node an’ some friggin’ bot parks right in front of you an’ extracts as soon as you’ve finished.  First few times I thought it was a player being a total ass, but then I followed one around…  an’ analyzed their patterns.  Tried talking to ‘em an’ everything, no one home.  Anywho, I’ll save my bot rants for another time…

Went on my first legion siege with Delcea tonight.  Got a good number of kills on the record, including a couple kill shots ~ not too shabby for a 32.  Though those AoE attacks from the elites kick my ass, lol, have to pot an’ temporarily retreat when that happens.  But it was fun!  We successfully defended Roah an’ Asteria on the topside.  We didn’t bother with the lower aby tonight.  Flameborne capped Sulfur an’ the two Siels just became vulnerable…  So we’ll see what happens with that in a couple hours (or less).  The Dredgion appeared earlier too, that stirred up a bit of a ruckus, heheh.

Though there was a small balaur force that attacked while we were at Roah.  I’ve never seen these NPC before, but damn they were tough!  Level ?? an’ 6 orbs strong, the main mob, the Seasoned Crusader, just gunned for the door an’ completely ignored everything we were doing to him.  We had him down to about 30% I think, but he managed to break the door down an’ then… despawned!?  WTF was that about, lol?

Anywho, GG all.  Going to work on crafting some more probably, then turn in.  Got Weaponsmithing to 299 an’ Cooking to 211.  Making some decent progress but I’m starting to hurt for kinah, lol, hopefully those weapons I crafted sell.  Oh yeah, last night I ran Fire Temple for the first time with Delcea an’ guess who popped!?

I’ve been there, like, 50 times with Faina an’ I’ve never seen VJ.  First time going in with Delcea an’ there she is!  Though, of course, the bitch didn’t drop anything… I HATEZ YOU KROMEDE!!!  /shakes fist

Asgard caerá durante la saga Siege

Marvel nos ha revelado esta imagen en donde se ve lo que podría suceder en Siege, que ya comienza en diciembre con el preludio Siege: The Cabal, en esta imagen se nos muestra a Asgard cayendo bajo el ataque presuntamente de Norman Osborn y sus Dark Avengers

Marvel ha diseñado una nueva estrategia editorial según la cual cambia periódicamente el status quo de su universo editorial. En un par de años, y con pocos meses de diferencia, hemos sufrido una Civil War, que dividió al mundo superheroico entre los partidarios y los detractores del acta de registro, llevando a muchos de los personajes clásicos de la casa a actuar en la clandestinidad. Meses después nos hemos encontrado con una Invasión Secreta que nos ha desvelado, entre otras cosas, que varios de los protagonistas y secundarios de colecciones Marvel eran agentes skrull infiltrados. Y actualmente, como consecuencia directa del anterior arco argumental diseñado por Brian Michael Bendis, nos encontramos en Dark Reign (Reinado Oscuro), nueva vuelta de tuerca al mencionado status quo que eleva a Norman Osborn al puesto de secretario de Estado de Seguridad de los USA (en lugar de Tony Stark), lo que supone, entre otras cosas, que determinadas organizaciones de supervillanos reciben impunidad para actuar siempre que no perjudiquen los intereses de Estados Unidos (ni del propio Norman Osborn, claro).

Cabe reseñar que, como novedad, Reinado Oscuro no es una miniserie en sí mismo, sino una especie de nuevo orden del universo Marvel que afecta más o menos a todas las colecciones. Aunque aquí no acaba la cosa, la Casa de las Ideas amenaza con rizar el rizo con Siege, su superproducción para 2010 enmarcada (como casi todas) en la colección de los Vengadores.

Estos macroeventos editoriales han existido desde hace décadas, son una vieja fórmula de éxito: series limitadas de varios números que sacuden el stablishment del universo superheroico en cuestión, y que tienen resonancia en las principales colecciones de la casa (e.g.: Secret Wars o Crisis en Tierras Infinitas). Sin embargo, jamás se había dado tal uso y abuso de esta fórmula en tan poco espacio de tiempo.

¿Es ésta una estrategia editorial válida? Desde el punto de vista comercial parece ser que sí, las series limitadas antes mencionadas se han vendido bastante bien. Aunque por ahora conocemos su efecto a corto plazo, también conozco lectores de cómics habituales (pero no mensuales) que recelan de comprar un cómic de X-Men, Los Vengadores o Spiderman porque “ya no me entero de nada, Lobezno no está en la Patrulla X”, “¿dónde están Thor y Iron Man?” o “¿qué demonios han hecho con Mary Jane?”. Tanto vaivén del dichoso SQ está comenzando a crear una barrera infranqueable para los seguidores no asiduos, ya que se obliga al lector a un seguimiento estricto de las colecciones para saber qué está pasando en el Universo Marvel.

Independientemente de los resultados económicos que la estrategia ideada por Joe Quesada esté arrojando, habría que tener en cuenta también las consecuencias para los personajes y editoriales de la colección. ¿Hasta qué punto estas grandes sagas que envuelven a varias colecciones irrumpen en los planes de los guionistas que las escriben? ¿En qué medida se han visto truncadas buenas ideas por la obligación impuesta desde la planta de marketing de que fulanito sea un skrull, o que el protagonista decida revelar su identidad secreta? Especialmente sangrante es el caso de Spiderman (nunca un personaje tan importante ha sido tan denostado por una editorial), ya que se aprovechó su papel en Civil War para borrar de un plumazo todo el trabajo de Strackzinski en la colección durante años, dándole un giro de tuerca a la cabecera que no parece haber contentado a nadie.

No sé qué opinaréis. Hay muchos lectores a los que les encantan estas especies de “superproducciones” en formato comic-book. Yo, por el contrario, pienso que los mejores cómics se escriben con historias sencillas, sin muchas explosiones, en las que se deja trabajar con libertad a los autores al frente. Exactamente lo mismo que pasa en el cine. Últimamente me da la sensación de que Marvel está volviendo a su concepto editorial de principios de los 90: exprimir al máximo a sus personajes, buscar grandes ventas inmediatas, independientemente de que, a nivel artístico, los resultados sean más bien pobres y se puedan hipotecar a determinados personajes a largo plazo. Veremos cómo evoluciona la cosa.

It seems like almost every day for the past fortnight Marvel have been releasing cryptic pictures promoting their upcoming Siege event, that has Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin) facing a threat to his meteoric rise to power in the form of Thor’s realm of Asgard. Below is today’s image, showing Bucky Barnes, AKA the new Captain America telling Osborn in his Iron Patriot armour just what he thinks of him. To see all the Siege images, and the trailer released thus far, go here. The 4 issue Siege by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel kicks off on January 6, but the Siege: The Cabal prologue by Bendis and Michael Lark hits on December 2.

Aerial Siege
Aerial Siege

Aerial Siege Game
Aerial Siege Game Description : Shoot down 20 enemy planes within the time limit.
How to Play Aerial Siege Game? Up / Down Arrow Keys – Adjust turret angle.
Left / Right Arrow Keys – Move.
Spacebar – Fire.
Shift Key – Switch Weapon.

Mmm sushi!  I had too much though, my stomach hated me for it.  Came back with a horrible vengeance during the siege today, GG, it was terrible…  Lucky enough I was switched into the secondary alliance.  I was makin’ a video but ended up scrapping the footage; no fun making a video solely based on artifact guard duty, lol.  But yeah, the high-ups predicted the outcome pretty accurately.  Both Siel forts became vulnerable at the same time Roah an’ Asteria did.  Asmos had already claimed Asteria, so they were probably setting their sights on Roah an’ the Lower Abyss.  We figured they’d do a sweep of lower an’ reclaim everything quickly before heading topside, which is exactly what happened (or seemed to happen from our perspective).

Anywho, there was no Asmo defense at Asteria until we got the deity down to about 25%.  Around that time the Asmos managed to cap lower an’ were headed towards Verdandi’s Prank Artifact, which was what alliance two was guarding.  We activated the artifact just before Asmos could launch their offensive, which bought us the time we needed.  Aferwards, we all rushed in an’ capped Asteria.  Just before the deity fell I got disconnected…  Only this time I was happy I did…

My abdomen was hurtin’ so bad I felt like I was about to bury my keyboard in regurgitated rice an’ fish…  I had to take a breather, an’ a breather I took.  Napped for I dunno how long, but by the time I woke up Wanted had just finished capping Roah.  GG all, pretty sure this’ Elyos server first for Upper Abyss claims.

Aside from the siege, I spent most of the afternoon looking for a Nochsana Training Camp group.  For some reason it was a real bitch trying to find one, or get one together…  Wasn’t until around midnight-ish that I got invited into one, an’ it was a hell of a good one at that!  Can’t recall his name, but that Gladiator tank knew what he was doing.  Tanked better than any Templar I’ve run with Delcea, that’s for sure.  LoS pulls, marks, everything was well-composed an’ organized.  As a result, the run went smooth as silk an’ in very good time.  Of course, the boss didn’t drop anything…  But, whatev, got all the quests done, lol.

While I was bustin’ Balaur skulls in NTC, Maiden was grouped with Tlfa an’ a few others for a routine HQ molar run.  Was goin’ according to plan until Tlfa flew off a cliff an’ disappeared…  Next thing you know party chat was spammed with random letter input that looked a lil’ something like this…

“asofj;asdfgasl;gnworisavasl;noi3o;kjf;nvw;jhasdgfaklsf;24kljfasf;pokj!!!”

For a moment Maiden thought Tlfa was having a seizure, but after a couple more lines of… well… that ^, Wanted’s GM called every available member to arms to tackle Grand Chieftain Saendukal.  There couldn’t have been more emphasis placed on speed, lmao, everyone had to haul ass to get there.  Why?  Tang Dynasty, that’s why, roflmao!  Anywho, Wanted got a 2 party alliance set up an’ took that boss down!  The 1H sword dropped an’ none of our eligible members needed it, so everyone greed rolled.  Then this happened…

I kid you not, Maiden spazzed out completely!  High pitched squee that woke up our toddler, followed by her skippin’ around the house for about fifteen minutes.  This’ the first time she’s ever won anything big like this in any game…  So was a big deal for her, lol.  Hopefully it’ll sell an’ help fund our crafting…  As is, we’ve only got about, what, 600k between us?  We is broke, lol!

And with a closing note, grats to my lil’ bro Reina for finally getting that shield to drop off of Sipus in FT!  He only had to run it about 80+ times…  Worth it?  He certainly seems happy with it, so must’ve been, heheh.