Hero of the Week #5: Green Lantern

GREEN LANTERN (DC)
Real Name: Hal Jordan
First Appearance: Showcase #22 (October, 1959)
Group Affiliation: Green Lantern Corps, Justice League
Gaming Credentials: Justice League Heroes (2006); Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe (2008); DC Universe Online (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #28

Theoretically, each H.O.T.W should be inspired by something happening concurrently within the superhero consciousness. So far that's included video games, starring films, and comic book events, and this week isn't really any different, aside from the fact that this topic has been of relevance for two years!

Like previous entrant, the Flash; Green Lantern underwent a "rebirth" that brought the character back not only from death (as the human host of The Spectre), but also from disgrace.
It was during the mid-nineties that Hal Jordan was seduced by a revenge that was not entirely his own, eventually revealed to be the opportunity upon which an ancient entity of fear was able to launch his revenge. For centuries Parallax had been contained in bondage within the central battery from which all Green Lanterns derive their power, known to them only as "the yellow impurity."

Parallax is not the only avatar to be born of the emotional spectrum. The Guardians created the Green Lantern rings from the power of will, while other energies tapped to various extents include; blue (hope), indigo (compassion), violet (love), yellow (fear), orange (avarice), and red (rage). Each unique facet has the power to imbue an individual with the power granted by their corresponding emotion.

Over the past two years, ring baring Corps have formed around all of these other spectrums of light under the guidance of prolific writer, Geoff Johns. Working from a vague blueprint prophesized in stories written by comics legend Alan Moore, he has steered the Green Lantern franchise to unlikely success based upon this simple premise of adapting the light spectrum to mean as much as it has to the original Silver Age Green Lantern(s).
From these stories, a War of Light has broken out amongst the conflicting factions. It began with the "Sinestro Corps War" that pitted the yellow power of fear against the green, but has spiralled out of control as leaders from each colour have been created or uncovered. Their struggle is the ultimate distraction as the greatest threat to the universe quietly stirs beneath their very feet. A Black Lantern Corps is about to rise, spreading chaos across the universe as the dead rise!

Blackest Night has been building for two years and will officially begin in July!
Though oblivious like all others to the creation of this army of the dead, Hal Jordan has clearly emerged as the hero who will lead the fight against the Blackest Night. Over the past year he has briefly possessed rings of Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, and Orange -- a truly unique feat that alludes to a white light that might just combat the overwhelming darkness!

 

IGN have launched a mini-site to cover the epic universe-spanning events of Blackest Night, but that isn't the only point of relevance for gamers interested in the Green Lantern!

The recent popularity of Green Lantern in comics has seen the iconic Silver Age icon return to prominence briefly taken up by GL replacement and cartoon Lantern, John Stewart.
Jordan has been representing the heroes front and centre in promotion for the immersive online MMO, DC Universe Online, which promises players the opportunity to fly alongside he and other members of the Green Lantern Corps, including Stewart. DCU Online follows the first substantial appearance of Hal Jordan in a video game as one of the playable DC heroes in the modest eleven character roster in,  Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

Green Lantern and Blackest Night issues are appearing monthly starting with July 1st!
You'll find all the necessary information to keep up and select series of interest on the IGN website, the DCU Source Blog, DC comics.com, and of course, most prominent comics sites (ie; Newsarama).
The event promises to bring back some heavy hitting heroes and villains who've died over the past few years, including prominent Black Lantern versions of Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Superman from a doomed parallel Earth! Whoooo! Super-Zombies! [For speculation, perspective, and spoilers, check out the Infinite Wars: Blackest Night post!]

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club is updated with varying consistency, promising a feature fight for every Friday on the calendar (even if sometimes they're late). The site acts as an information resource, discussion site, review blog, and a cosmic good time.

Original Post: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8996716

Hero of the Week #4: Captain America

CAPTAIN AMERICA (Marvel)
Real Name: Steve Rogers
First Appearance: Captain America Comics #1 (March, 1941)
Group Affiliation: Avengers, Secret Avengers, Invaders, SHIELD
Gaming Credentials: Spider-man & Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge (1989); Captain America and the Avengers (1991); Maximum Carnage (1994); Marvel Super Heroes (1995); Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems (1996); Marvel vs Capcom 2 (2000); Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (2005); Marvel Ultimate Alliance (2006); Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #7

I've blogged about it before and I'll definitely blog about it again: comics and video games have a lot in common, both as artforms, and as industries. In many respects, I believe the relatively young medium of gaming could learn a lot from it's sequential senior. Where gaming has a leg up, however, is justification for levity towards death.

If you were following the news at all last week, you probably heard all about Marvel's big announcement for Captain America #600 -- the return of Steve Rogers! If you bought into the hype and actually picked up the hefty $4.99 issue, then allow me to apologise on behalf of the entire industry. Chances are you would've been left a little bemused by the so-called major issue, given that it was a lead-in to the actual series and event of Captain America: Reborn.

Unlike last week's hero (Flash); Captain America's death did not come with a grandiose sense of self-sacrifice; did not benefit all of mankind; and hadn't really even been put to paper all that long!
It was only back in April of 2007, in Captain America #25, that the big A bit the big 1 when he was shot Lee Harvey Oswald-style on the steps of the courthouse he was to be tried in for unlawful activity as an unregistered superhero. The proverbial gunman-on-the-grassy knoll was Cap's arch-nemesis and rooftop assassin, Crossbones, who was working on behalf of the Red Skull. The actual culprit amidst the chaos, however, was the Captain's own straight shooting ex-girlfriend, and agent of SHIELD, Sharon Carter!... Or so it seemed...

Reborn re-examines the events of the fateful shooting, starting with Sharon Carter, the superspy who had been brainwashed to shoot Cap in the gut at point blank and will now find a way to bring him back.

For Marvel Comics, who owe their most significant history to the Stan Lee era of the 1960's; Captain America is one of the few enduring characters that connects them to the Golden Age of comics. Revived as part of Lee's super-group, the Avengers, the Captain re-entered the "modern" world as a man not quite in sync with the time around him. That otherworldly distance the WWII hero possessed has allowed him to become a cypher for many discussions about the American political landscape, and the ideals of an idealistic nation.
To this day, the character largely represents the incorruptible good that America has failed to achieve, but always strived for. He is a character larger than life, important around the world not for the jingoistic flag-waving his red, white, and blue costume represents, but for the larger-than-life superheroic truth and justice he stands for.

The subtleties and unique intrigue of 1940s superheroes, even in their updated incarnations, hasn't always connected directly with gamers, but many will fondly remember the character for his iconic flinging of the shield in games like Captain America and the Avengers and the vs Capcom series. Off the back of his significance in the modern Marvel Universe, however, Cap has enjoyed a more substantial role in the Ultimate Alliance game, which, for now, represents the most thorough venture into the entire Marvel universe, rather than just one brand.

 
 

Cap returns in the Ultimate Alliance sequel, Fusion, packing a punch as one of the key figures in a storyline adapted from 2006's Civil War. The story, centred around the registration and exposure of superheroes to the government, pitted two factions of heroes against one and other in a clash of ideals, asking readers to choose between Captain America and Iron Man. As if to bring events full circle, it was the Civil War that indirectly led to the assassination of Captain America!

Cap also returns later in the year in the [delayed] digital reissuing of Marvel vs Capcom 2! Captain America: Reborn #1 hits comic stores July 1st. The much talked about feature film, Captain America: The First Avenger, is currently slated for a July 2011 release.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club is updated with varying consistency, promising a feature fight for every Friday on the calendar (even if sometimes they're late). The site acts as an information resource, discussion site, review blog, and an All-American good time.

Original Post: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8995755

Hero of the Week #3: Flash

FLASH (DC)
Real Name: Barry Allen
First Appearance: Showcase #4 (October, 1956)
Group Affiliation: Justice League, Flash Family
Gaming Credentials: The Flash (1991); The Flash (1993); Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe (2008); DC Universe Online (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #21

In the pantheon of DC superheroes there are a select few characters vying for the degree of signifance and popularity granted to the easily recounted trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. On the cusp of this headlining echelon has traditionally been the key secondary cast that round out the Justice League of America; Green Lantern, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and of course, the Flash.

As one of the defining characters from the transitional period of the Silver Age of comic books; the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash has become one of the most storied legends in and out of the fiction, standing as a definitive example of the generational legacy DC have been able to craft. For most gamers reading the site, Wally West will be the more familiar Flash, having succeeded his uncle [Barry] after his famous moment of self-sacrifice in DC's now classic multiverse epic, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

More than twenty years after the character's death, Barry Allen officially came racing back into the land of the living in the pages of 2008's Final Crisis #2 .
His timely return would play a key role in defeating the series villain - Darkseid - whose spread of the Anti-Life Equation enslaved humanity indescriminately and reduced the world to only small pockets of resistance.
Together with his counterparts; Jay Garrick and Wally West; the resurrected Flash led death itself to Darkseid's door. It is the cost of this act, and the mysterious circumstances of his return, that have spun-off into his affectionate return to the DCU, Flash: Rebirth.

Hot off the heels of Allen's transformation into the dreaded Black Flash (death to speedsters) and his reassimilation into the Speed Force [in last week's third issue]; it's the on-going adventures of Rebirth that are the reason Barry Allen is this week's H.O.T.W!

Considering his heyday came to an end in the mid-eighties, it's perhaps somewhat surprising that the Barry Allen Flash made his way into as many video games as he has. The 1991 Game Boy issue, and bizarre and enjoyable 1993 Sega Master System release, were both spawned by the ill-fated 1990 television series, starring TV's John Wesley Shipp (Dawson's Creek).

The unlikely crossover between the bloodlusting martial artists of Mortal Kombat, and the heroes of the DC Universe, brought with it the first modern appearance of Barry Allen in a game. Surprising, given that the official release of the game came mere months after the "shock" return of the character in Final Crisis. Here, the Flash earned infamy for his easily spammed attacks, and bastardized manifestation of one of comics' most revered costumes. (Seriously, did we really need more lightning bolts?...)

Gamers, similar to fans of the cartoons, are likely more familiar with the Wally West version of the character. The comics savvy among you, however, will know just how vital the legacy of Barry Allen has always been to the contemporary Flash and the winding mythos of the character. His return has been part of an initiative by DC to allegedly reinstate the most iconic incarnations of their heroes, and in that respect, you can almost certainly count on running across Allen in the upcoming MMO extravaganza, DC Universe Online.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club is updated with varying consistency, promising a feature fight for every Friday on the calendar (even if sometimes they're late). The site acts as an information resource, discussion site, review blog, and general good time. Be sure to check it out!

Original Post: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8994847

Hero of the Week #2: Batman

BATMAN (DC)  
Real Name: Dick Grayson
First Appearance: Detective Comics #38 (April, 1940)
Group Affiliation: Bat-Family, The Titans
Gaming Credentials: Adventures of Batman & Robin (1994); Batman Forever (1995); Batman & Robin (1998); Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (2003); Lego Batman (2008); DC Universe Online (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #29

Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not a misprint! Not an imaginary story!
Up until now you were probably comfortable in the fact that Batman is Bruce Wayne, but all of that changed last week when Dick Grayson made his first official outing as the Dark Knight in the pages of Batman & Robin #1!

Long story cut short: when Darkseid and the evil New Gods fell from the Fourth World, they walked the Earth as men, bringing a new reign of destruction upon an unsuspecting humanity! During the Final Crisis, evil won, and all but a pocket of resistance was enslaved to the Anti-Life Equation spread by Darkseid and his army of Purifiers.
While Mr. Terrific, Supergirl, Lex Luthor, and others turned the tables in the field; Batman escaped the shackles that bound him in the early goings, to come face-to-face with Darkseid himself! With life on Earth hanging in the balance, Batman broke the stalemate of their stand-off, willingly sacrificing himself before a blast from Darkseid's Omega Sanction eyebeam in order to fire one shot from a timegun containing a Radion bullet! The wound would end Darkseid's evil and save humanity, but for Batman, life and death have become one and the same!

The truth behind Bruce Wayne's circumstances remain unknown to both the reader, and the heroes he fought for.
When Superman returned from adventures through time and space, he reigned down upon Darkseid and the villains with a fury, emerging with what appeared to Bruce Wayne's corpse. Is this merely the vestigal shell of a man whose consciousness and soul have been thrust through time and space [a fate much the same as that which once befell Crisis hero, Sonny Sumo], or is Batman truly dead? For Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake, and the other members of the extended Bat-family, the facts were simple -- their mentor and ally was gone with no signs of coming back.

Despite a will and testament that compelled Grayson to leave the Bat-mantle in the grave with Wayne, Gotham City makes a compelling argument for the necessity of a Batman. When chaos gripped the city already known for it's madness, the former-Robin was forced to accept that it was always he that was groomed to be the heir to the Batman. After fending off unwanted attempts by the black sheep of the family [Jason Todd] to claim the mantle, Dick was finally able to end the brief battle for the cowl, to finally don the cape and mantle as a new Batman.

As with much of the DC Universe; Dick Grayson is slated to appear in the aptly titled MMO, DC Universe Online. Chances are you shouldn't expect the changes to carry over, however. Dick Grayson has already been announced to appear alongside the Dark Knight Detective in his better known contemporary guise of Nightwing.

The change might not be permenant enough to warrant confusing the issue in licensed media, but Dick Grayson's stepping out as Batman is more than enough to make him Hero of the Week!

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club is updated with varying consistency, promising a feature fight for every Friday on the calendar (even if sometimes they're late). The site acts as an information resource, discussion site, review blog, and general good time. Be sure to check it out!

<< Hero of the Week 06/15: Flash       [Home]       Hero of the Week 06/01: Wolverine >>

Original Post: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8993943

Hero of the Week #1: Wolverine

WOLVERINE (Marvel)  
Real Name: James "Logan" Howlett
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #181 (November, 1974)
Group Affiliation: Secret Avengers, X-Men, X-Force
Gaming Credentials: Wolverine (1991); X-Men (1993); Wolverine: Adamantium Rage (1994); X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995); Marvel Superheroes in War of the Gems (1996); Marvel vs Capcom 2 (2000); X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003); X-Men Legends (2004); X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009); Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (TBA)
Infinite Wars Cumulative Ranking: #6

When I'm hanging around here blowing off steam, you might not know that I'm actually neglecting a much longer running blog called, Secret Wars on Infinite Earths. In a nutshell, that's the place where I indulge in the lows and highs of comics culture, featuring superhero fights like a big weird pseudo-sports league. Like a lot of great comics themselves; I like to think it's a lowbrow vehicle with highbrow ideals.

In an effort to reconcile the gap between the two blogs, I generally use my own references when linking to details of relevance. Fortunately for me, superheroes are inexorably linked with video games, and while it might seem slightly obtuse for the uninitiated, it's not really that much of a stretch to spotlight a superhero each week. Wolverine's a great example of that!

Wolverine has a long and sordid past in video games, but his most recent outings have all shown just how at home the character is in the gaming arena.

Early appearances famously hindered trademark attacks as the conventions of 8-bit gaming struggled to reconcile the capabilities of a claw slashing, brute sniffing, always healing mutant into the conventions of the time. While some suffered on a fundamental level that forced the usually agile hero into clumsy platforming, others succeeded at failing on more deliberate levels, like the various games that penalized players for popping a blob of white pixels representing his famous adamantium-laced claws.

The revolution of 3D gaming brought with it many challenges to be navigated in order to unlock the massive potential of the added plane. Through the last few generations we've seen in-game logics gradually let go of the boxed-in fundamentals that constrained early games, adapting the rules to represent a heightened state of hyper-realism.
The introduction of stealth elements, 360 directional environments, diverse enemy AI, adaptable visual displays, and designs that minimized the importance of life-and-death scenarios, all played directly in to the hands of a character like Wolverine.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, like the film it was based on, had it's creative issues as a result of contemporary influences ("IMO"), but it made the next vital step toward realising superheroes (and Wolverine in particular) in all their visceral glory.

The most prominent feature unique to Wolverine was the graphical impetus for ramping up the violence.

Despite being a custom-designed killing machine with knives sticking out of his hands; it's been a struggle to ever see that adequately represented in any satisfying form, let alone put in the hands of gamers. Raven Software's graphical impetus for ramping up levels of blood and violence might not have put forward an argument for superheroes as chin-rubbing philosophical cyphers, but it seems safe to say that it announced the guilty visceral extent the character and games are capable of reaching far better than the film.
Of course, as much as Origins pushed a version of realism to some success, that does nothing to discount the classic almost literal version of the character that will return in 2009's rereleased downloadable version of Marvel vs Capcom 2!

Despite being best known for their free-flowing superpowered melees in comics, developers have made regular efforts to capture the energy of superhero fisticuffs under the ceremonial restrictions of single-plane 2D fighters. Results have ranged from the average to downright mediocre, but unsurprisingly, the seasoned masters at Capcom found a way to make it work.
Vital to their success was the graphical fidelity and artistry that made this 2D fighter an enduring staple of the 3D era, defying contemporaries like Tekken and Virtua Fighter with it's bold and accurate representations of characters from the comics, and fluid, fever-pitched combat. Wolverine never once lopped an opponent's limb off, or suffered a career threatening impalement, but still felt beautifully accurate in his various movements before the inevitable berzerker barrage.

Over in the comics, the Wolvster's still wrapped up in all the universe-spanning guest-appearing action that made him infamous. Today, however, let the record show that our Hero of the Week isn't just a secret avenging X-man, but a gaming super-stud, as well.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club is updated with varying consistency, promising a feature fight for every Friday on the calendar (even if sometimes they're late). The site acts as an information resource, discussion site, review blog, and general good time.

Original Post: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8992180