Incognito words by Ed Brubaker, pictures by Sean Phillips and colored by Val Staples

Incognito is the palate cleanser project for Brubaker and Phillips between Criminal story-arcs. It’s a return to the mixing of noir and espionage and super-heroes that they did with Sleeper, but moreover it’s a tight story about a former super-villain in the witness protection program. Zack Overkill and his brother were two of the top men for the Black Death, but Xander ends up dead and Zack is given a choice: Testify and give up the super-powered life or get vanished down some hole forever. Zack makes his choice and is now Zack is a file clerk, killing time and living the life of a schmuck when he isn’t getting hassled by his case worker… that is, until the drugs that keep his powers in check stop working.

For those who’ve witnessed Brubaker and Phillips’ work together on Criminal or Sleeper this one should be an easy sell. And if not, Incognito makes for a good spot to introduce yourself to their skilled noir stylings.

Prime is the latest and greatest in the sprawling clusterfuck of the Transformers franchise. It theoretically takes place in the same continuity as the War for Cybertron game, which was fantastic, and is written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. You might remember these guys wrote the two live action movies, which are awful. However, they also wrote Star Trek, Alias, Fringe and the soon-to-be-released Cowboys and Aliens; so one might be able to discern that perhaps they were not being allowed full creative leverage on the TF movie project.

Prime gives the that leverage. The show is only 7 episodes in, and already it’s proven to be exciting, brutal, and mature in ways extended toy commercial shows shouldn’t be. The CG animation is fantastic, particularly in the action scenes, and the writing is superb. The first five episodes are all one miniseries; if nothing else, check those out. The series just started in earnest and is guaranteed to have another season; so its worth the investment.

Enjoy!

We cover some headlines this week, but first, we talk about Alex’s time in the Nyquil rehab center.

After that, Jonathan talks about some XBL games he’s picked up.  Stacking is an interesting, fairly entertaining adventure game, but he needs some more time with it before giving a rating.  He’s also picked up Galaga Legions and Space Invaders Infinity Gene, both updates to the classic arcade games.  Galaga is a little less insane than Space Invaders.  Take that as you will.  Jonathan’s been in rehab of his own, as well, and has cancelled his World of Warcraft account.

Sam has placed a number of pre-orders: Bulletstorm, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Duke! Nukem! Forever!: Balls! of! Steel! Edition! Inappropriate comparisons fly over that last title.  He’s also picked up his Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pre-order.  It’s pretty, button-mashy entertainment.  He also started and then immediately returned Enslaved: Odyssey into the West.  He’s also gotten rid of Nier, and hasn’t had much luck advancing Dragon Age: Origins along.

Alex has played Battlestations: Pacific, and had no luck getting an online game going.  Dead Space 2 ran aground on similar issues.  R.U.S.E. is consequently seeing a revival on Alex’s gaming schedule.

In the headlines, we revisit a few stories, try to skip a couple stories, and take about some new stuff:

• A followup to the FoxNews article: A response from Carol Lieberman, and one more.
• Rocksteady confirms Batman: Arkham City will be ‘single-player only’
• Kevin Butler Tweet Accidently Shares PS3 Root Key
• The Smithsonian is planning a video game exhibition.
• New Assassin’s Creed To Be Announced In May; AC: Brotherhood Sells 6.5M Units
• PSA: PlayStation Network content must be re-purchased on Xperia Play

Name That Game was…. forgotten.  Next week, folks!

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Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts written by Dan Brereton

A collection of three stories of Brereton’s team of supernatural and bioengineered monster-men. In “Carnival of Beasts” (drawn by Brereton, letters by Sean Glenn) Doc Horror is sending his daughter, the precocious medium Halloween Girl to a private school. But first off a visit to the woods for a lesson in the family business…

“The Scrimshaw Crown” (art & letters by Viktor Kalvachev) moves the focus to merwoman Starfish, who ventures into the depths of the ocean to retrieve an item from a sea monster to lay a ghost to rest…

And in “Night of the Candy Butchers” (drawn by Ruben Martinez, colors by Viet Nguyen and letters by Sean Glenn) zombie gunfighter Gunwitch and the ghostly Polychrome take lil’ Halloween Girl on a visit to a carnival. Where the supernatural bite off more than they can chew when they mess with the trio of Nocturnals…

Hey!  It’s an episode!  A swarming pile of potential controversy!  Enjoy!

We talk about games and lousy news this week, and a sick Alex hopped up on Nyquil gets surly, hence the explicit tag.

Alex is trying to overcome Fat Gamer Syndrome by playing The Biggest Loser on the Kinect.  Will he be booted off the game he paid for?  He’s also been disappointed by Deadly Pemonitions, a B-game that ended up providing an F-experience.

Jonathan’s only had time to get in some more time on Kirby’s Epic Yarn.  The co-op multiplayer isn’t as compelling or entertaining as New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but it’s still fun, and the game is still challenging.  Jonathan gives it a verdict of Purchase.

Sam talks about finishing up Dead Space 2, starting up Dragon Age Origins… again, and some thoughts he has on the differences between Assassin’s Creed 2 vs. Brotherhood.  He’s also picked up a chunky hard drive for his 360, and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, much to Alex’s chagrin.

Following the game talk, the guys realize they’ve got more time to fill, and so talk about the death of Guitar Hero, and the death of satire.  Alex gets even more surly.

Finally, we discover that it’s a terrible idea to play Name That Game when the host of the game is high on Nyquil.  It gets painful.

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X-Men First Class: New Beginnings written by Jeff Parker, pencils by Roger Cruz, inks by Victor Olazaba, colors by Val Staples, letters by Nate Piekos

X-Men First Class was Marvel’s X-wangst free, continuity light X-book. Written by the talented Jeff Parker backed here by the sharp clean art of Roger Cruz on pencils and Victor Olazaba on inks. The series is set at some vague point early in the X-Men’s history back when the original members were still actual students of Xavier’s. This collection contains the first four issues of the second volume. With the X-men encountering an alien intelligence, vacationing in Florida and meeting the Lizard, dealing with the dangers of Scott’s brain and finally teaming with Dr. Strange after Scott begins having demonic visions…

The First Class line of X-books (X-Men, Wolverine and Uncanny) are like the Marvel Adventures line. All the fun of the characters, produced by some top-notch talent and missing all the “realism” of the majority of Marvel’s main line. Good stuff…

I have a checkered history with Looney Labs’ card game series, Fluxx.  The few times I’ve had an opportunity to play one of the many versions of Fluxx, it’s been brought out at cons, and pitched as a quick, diversionary game that doesn’t require much attention.  ”We’ve got a bunch of people.  We really just want to hang out, but we’re at a con so we should play a game.  Bust out Fluxx!”  It’s never gone well.

I received a review copy of Pirate Fluxx recently, and I’m at least happy to report that my negative experiences are not the game’s fault.  Here are some of the things I’ve been told about Fluxx. “There aren’t really any rules.”  ”There’s no real strategy.”  ”You don’t have to pay attention to the game.”  Turns out none of these are true, and all of these attitudes have a profoundly negative affect on the game.  I’m not saying the game isn’t without faults, but with the right group and the right mindset, Pirate Fluxx can be a lot of fun.

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Welcome back, folks!  We’ve got headline talk this week.

First though, Jonathan picked up a PS2 based on Alex’s recommendation, as well as Dead Space and Resonance of Fate.  He’s found Dead Space to be fairly ho-hum, one chapter in, and he hates a character who apparently has some sort of satisfying death.  He also talks a bit about WoW’s late game content, with a note that he’ll be quitting soon.  Really.

Sam rejoices over finishing Fable 3, and talks a bit about Dead Space 2.  He’s also got hold of a new laptop, so perhaps PC games other than WoW will make appearances in the show again, and we get a brief explanation of the Burning Rome teaser, and a recommendation to watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Alex puts off game talk in favor of revising his “Best Thing of 2010 That Wasn’t a Game” pick, and giving his take on what his contest entry would have looked like assuming he was allowed to enter.

Our headlines this week cover the gamut:

• Sony announces the “Next Generation Portable”
• Rumors say Sony might start using serial keys for PS3 games
• Hell moves ever closer to freezing over as Duke Nukem gets a release date
• The Russian media tries to blame Modern Warfare 2 for terrorism
• California tries to slap warning labels on video games
• OnLive announces their new unlimited gaming pack

Before Name That Game, Jonathan almost announces a new contest, but doesn’t quite, and then Sam unleashes game show hell on his cohorts.  It gets ugly.

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I was simply going to post a link on Twitter with a pithy, sarcastic remark about this FoxNews story, but then I started to actually read the article.  Dire predictions and ominous warnings about violent video games are nothing new, but this article about Bulletstorm rises (sinks?) to a whole new level, and if only to preserve my own sanity, I wanted to give it a thorough critique.

One of my profs once said, “Satire is dead,” and reading this article, I’m forced to agree.  Towards the end it reads like a parody piece from The Onion, and I’m still not entirely convinced that this isn’t a plant directly from Epic Games or EA.

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Batman and the Mad Monk with Matt Wagner on story & art, Dave Stewart on colors and Rob Leigh on letters

Wagner’s sequel to his Batman & the Monster Men. And its a pity that DC only had him do two of these Dark Moon Rising retellings of classic Batman stories. Because they are pretty damn amazing. Both in terms of the art (and big props to how well Stewart’s coloring works with Wagner’s drawings) and the updated story…

Which here involves Batman vs. a cult of vampires. Or maybe just “vampires”. Either way Batman gets to fight some wolves in hand-to-fang combat. And who doesn’t want to see that?