I’m not here to undersell the storytelling in comics. I love the well-written stuff like Watchmen or Sandman. But one thing I do love from comics is the action, and that’s why I’m writing this article. This is my personal analysis of the best fighters in superhero comics. Now, keep in mind, the opinions stated are my own, and if you disagree, I welcome your comments (so long as it’s civil). Secondly, this is not a countdown. Thirdly, I’m going to attempt to figure out real-world martial arts that may actually be in use here. And finally, if your favorite superhero isn’t here, it doesn’t mean they’re not a good fighter, I just think these are the ones who have a legitimate style to it.

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There are times when I become horribly confused as to what the majority of critics are thinking. This is one of those times.

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I’m a fan of Darren Aronofsky. He knows what he’s doing, and he tends to surround himself with people who, in turn, know what they’re doing. This combination produces the results we’ve seen from Aronofsky. That being said, I had no idea how he would tackle a movie like Wolverine. As time passed, and more was revealed about the plot, I started hoping that Aronofsky’s The Wolverine would be a diamond in the rough; a redeeming X-Men movie. News broke yesterday, however, that Darren Aronofsky has bid The Wolverine farewell. Read the full story

UPDATE: Due to an unforeseen technical difficulty, the deadline for the Marvel vs. Capcom 3/Marvel Digital Comics contest is pushed back until 11:59 PM PST on Wednesday, March 9th giving you all time to get your submissions in. Also, we realize that the phrase might be a little more obscure than originally intended so here is a hint: read the Wikipedia page for X-Men’s Wolverine to help you out.

The armadillo’s shell is vociferous. The marmoset juggles the coconuts. The hippopotamus pirouettes gracefully. The strange man enjoys creating strange code phrases. Episode 006 of Marooners’ Talk, titled “The Badger Flies at Midnight…”, is now online for your listening pleasure. We do something different this week and include a key-phrase related to Wolverine, the Marvel Comics character. What do you do with this key-phrase? You email us at contests@maroonersrock.com with a subject of “MvC 3″ and the key-phrase in the body before 11:59pm PST, Monday, March 7th. Why should you bother? Well, one lucky random winner will receive a (slightly-opened and used) copy of the normal Xbox 360 version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and one lucky random winner will win a redemption code for one free month of full access to Marvel’s online digital comic database. Sweet! Read the full story

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I’ve been thinking about this lately. The X-Men film series is screwed. It has been for a while. The first two films, while taking liberty with the vast X-Men universe, were good films in their own right that could be watched by people who have never before read about Sniktbub and his amazing adventures. But with X-Men: The Last Stand, things started going all crap shaped. Too many characters, no story, deaths for no good reason, it was a mess. And X-Men Origins: Wolverine just kept the stupid coming without any of the quality that X3 had somehow kept from the first two movies. And then what they did to Deadpool…yeah, it was bad. So, here we are with yet another prequel. What can Fox, Marvel and Matthew Vaughn do to bring the X-Men movies back to where they once were? Well, here are five things that they could/should do to get the quality back into this series.

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Marvel vs. Capcom is a game franchise so well known that all you have to do is merely mention its title and gamers around the globe will begin to tell stories of epic battles and who their favorite characters are. Of course, there are the never-ending discussions about which female character is the hottest (Morrigan FTW), or who is the best at the game, but none of that really matters. MvC 1 & 2 are iconic arcade games and, if you see the cabinets somewhere, you automatically gravitate towards them.

I’ve put many hours, and many quarters, into Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It is a game where I was instantly hooked, and I loved it so much that, when I was working at GameStop many years ago, I immediately grabbed a copy for the Dreamcast even though I didn’t own the console. I then went so far as to purchase the version that came out for Xbox because I was that big of a fan. Well, imagine how thrilled I was to hear that a third installment of the franchise would be coming in 2011.

It’s okay, go ahead, imagine me jumping for joy. I’m not going anywhere.

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The second episode of Marooners’ Talk is now available for listening and download here on the site, and will soon be available on iTunes. Episode 001, “Feeling Like A Ham and Mustard Shake,” has a couple of inappropriate moments in it, so make sure there are no children present when you listen. Read the full story

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In a surprise move, the longtime editor of such classic titles as Hellblazer, The Punisher, Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men has been promoted to the job currently held by Joe Quesada, who will be focusing on his position as Chief Creative Officer. Read the full story

In which we ponder how the world that fears those that are different would react to a red nosed reindeer. Read the full story

I am an experienced time traveler. Unfortunately, triggering my travels through time is beyond my conscious control. I must rely on external factors to throw me into the past. Yesterday, one such external factor threw me back to an arcade  in Oklahoma City in the early 1990s. Yesterday, I picked up my Xbox 360 controller and played the Backbone Entertainment’s XBLA release of Konami’s classic 1992 side-scrolling beat-em-up arcade game, X-Men. The highest praise I can give this game is that it is exactly how I remember it being over 15 years ago. When I sat and started playing last night, I felt like a kid in an arcade again. Read the full story