E3 2008: More on ‘Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Fusion’
Consider it the worst kept secret since Spider-Man’s secret identity. (Well, before One More Day.) Through stock reports and other PR events, Activision had pretty much said that a sequel to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance was on the way.
As we reported earlier today, they revealed the official name at Activision’s E3 press conference: Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Fusion. The subtitle comes from the heroes now combining their abilities for “an astonishing number of powers.” The demonstration teased Iron Man’s laser beams and the Invisible Woman’s forcefield building up to something but they stopped before showing the result. In the original MUA, when two characters attacked the same enemy, a bonus would be added for performing the combo. A “+2 to damage” sort of thing. The new system is more along the lines of the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer videogame adaptation, where the Human Torch filled Invisible Woman’s force bubble with fire so she could hurl it as a bomb.
As for as the storyline, Activision didn’t confirm the rumors that it revolved around the Civil War story from the comics (despite Brian Bendis’ saying as much in our recent interview with him). If anything, the footage shown made it seem like Latveria was attacking the world.
The series has been an odd mixture of the Ultimate and classic Marvel universes, but Wolverine was shown now wearing his yellow uniform from Astonishing X-Men, as seen in the video posted after the jump. (more…)
Fans of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive might be surprised to learn the actor who played Adam Kesher 
Over at the Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has done quite a service by 
With The Dark Knight looming large this week, Cinematical’s resident "geek beat" writer Elisabeth Rappe recently put together a list of the ladies she’d like to see introduced in the new Batman film franchise. Among her thoughtful reflections on potential leading ladies for Gotham’s favorite superhero are Catwoman ("she needs to be redeemed from that awful Halle Berry film"), Poison Ivy ("Nolan could revise her into a true eco-terrorist, a scientist who takes ‘green living’ a little too seriously") and the suggestion with the most potential, in my opinion, Talia al-Ghul:
MSN is the latest mainstream media organization to jump all over Comic-Con, announcing plans to post copious amounts of coverage from the event.
: "You’re excited? Feel these nipples!"
Good news for at least one of the staff members fired by Tokyopop in that publisher’s recent purge: Paul Morrissey has taken an unspecified editing role with Boom! Studios, according to a press release from Boom.
No stranger to pushing the boundaries of storytelling in the comics world, Garth Ennis has routinely shocked and awed readers of such titles as Preacher, The Boys, Punisher and recently, The Chronicles of Wormwood. In early August, Ennis looks to repeat that success with Crossed, a story that promises to be a "horrifically visceral exploration of the pure evil that humans are truly capable of indulging." The series will be published by Avatar Press — also no stranger to testing the limits of mature-themed projects — with art provided by Ennis’ former collaborator on Wormwood, Jacen Burrows.
Is there anyone who wants a PlayStation 2 that hasn’t gotten one at this point? Well, the answer must be "yes" because, to the embarrassment of the next-gen game systems, people are still buying the PS2 in greater numbers than its online, Blu-Ray PlayStation 3 brethren. Not surprising when you consider the latter is a $400-500 purchase.
While everyone’s getting excited about the big stars and events coming up at next week’s San Diego Comic-Con, the best story of this year’s con is just starting to unfold.
