What I ended up doing for Halloween...

So I was too busy this October to build that suit of full Iron Man armor, sadly. Someday, maybe.

So instead I used alot of what I had from the house and Goodwill for a mad-scientist monster hunter type outfit. Photos below. The gun is a repainted, slightly modded SuperSoaker Tornado Strike. I picked it because the barrels spun when you pump it.

Oh Tony Stark...

...Yeah, I'd do this too.

Blogging

Guys, I have no idea what's going on here.

These are my blog stats. I've tried to launch 6 versions of this blog before (WIP was a subcategory of a RustyRaygun blog, and I consider Defective Comics a version). I don't get it. Those were up longer. Some had more posts, especially the 09 version. This version of the site was only up for 2 months, and I actually got too busy to post during October (Majorly sorry about that). What am I doing differently now? Why do I suddenly have 400 views and counting?!

If you want, feel free to leave a comment telling me what you enjoy. I'd love feedback on what kind of content I should post more of in the future. Thanks!

Jean-Luc Pi-Card

THORSDAY

In honor of the movie premiere today, I had to get my hammer out!

...And yes, people, I'm also well aware of the chinese Thor poster snafu. But I'm not going to acknowledge it. Nope. Not touching that with a ten foot pole.

X-Men: New Trailer

We need you to hope again. 

This looks so good, and is one of my favorite story lines in the comics. All it was missing was a shot of the Sentinels in action. 

...I love me some Sentinels!

Nick Fury: I WAS RIGHT!!!

I WAS RIGHT! #agentsofshield

And as far as I can tell, I'm the only one who caught and posted the Easter Egg online. So what now? Is anyone gonna listen next time I point these things out?!

(Sadly I have to wait until they put the episode online to watch, as I don't support cable...)

Edit: My bad, apparently this was the only other site to catch it:

http://www.hitfix.com/news/marvel-hints-at-nick-fury-cameo-in-this-weeks-agents-of-shield#~oj4NMDTf7mGz3u

Nick Fury in Agents of SHIELD?

Ok. This is entirely speculation, but check this out.

Watch this trailer on the show's Facebook page, which says "to stay until the end of the credits on Tuesday. In true Marvel fashion, you never know what might happen."

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151618634393204

Then at the end, they oddly zoom in on the head of the eagle in the logo then zooms out. It's now wearing an eyepatch. In other trailers for the show (I checked) the logo starts on the middle then zooms out. It's clear they want us to see this oddly placed eyepatch, which is a trademark of SHIELD Director, Nick Fury. My money is on Samuel L. Jackson making a cameo at the end.

I'm seriously surprised no bigger nerdy news sites have picked up on this. C'mon guys :P.

I'm secretly hoping they handle a story where, like in the comics, Fury runs into some kind of trouble and has to step down as  SHIELD Director  leaving the spot for Maria Hill to fill. They've already hinted at her becoming more of a regular on the show, especially since actress Cobie Smulders is more available after How I Met Your Mother ended, and that'd be a valid way of doing it. Meanwhile, they could do Fury's Secret Warriors stuff on the side if they want, having Samuel Jackson showing up in cameos for that, or even a full spin-off movie.

But, odds are more likely that he'll just show up to pat Coulson on the back and tell him he's doing a good job.

Or. Ooor. If Whedon is good, he'll have Fury be the one to level with Coulson on how they brought him back to life. That would be worth seeing too. In Avengers, he seemed to be the one hurt the most personally by Phil's passing.

"I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming." -Nick Fury

Starting the new Iron Man suit

Hurm. So I said I'd post progress of my lastest suit, and here's the first little bit.  If you squint real hard, you can see a paper pattern for a bicep.

"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."

SHIELD ID

"And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil!" -Tony Stark

Get your own at http://www.agentsofshield.com/ . I am earnestly looking forward to the show, I just hope that they have a legit reason for bringing Phil Coulson back from the dead.

Accidental Giant Robot

Ok, so a friend recently posted this picture on his Facebook of a concert:

And in the middle, the two lights together? I immediately saw the face of a robot. A giant, menacing robot, about to stomp down on the band, then aim its deadly eye-beams down upon the innocent crowd.

This is your doing, Mike Lee. You've made me suspect the Robot-kind. 

(For the un-informed, Mike Lee is a good friend of mine who despises robots in all forms)

DC Finally does 4 inch figures!

So I collect 3.75 - 4 inch figures, aka GI Joes, Marvel Universe and Star Wars. But sadly, for years, DC had never had a good offering in this realm. I've considered customizing some figures to fit, but it's just not the same.

Then today this happened.

So yeah, DC and Mattel, Shut up and take my money already!
They're even making a freaking MR. FREEZE!!!

Via ComicsAlliance

Awesome Darkseid Cosplay!

Pay attention! This is how a cosplay of Darkseid should look! The only thing I'd add is some form of glowing eyes or white contacts, but that's me. I'm also showing this because it's a perfect example of a concept I had awhile back, but had a hard time explaining. Say you want to do a characters like this, with a strange face, and you still want eye and mouth movement. So what you can do is a partial mask that covers everything but the eyes and mouth, then add makeup so your skin matches. I originally had the idea for another supervillain, Red Skull, but there's several it could work for.

Darkseid Cosplay at San Diego Comic-Con 2010. Photo by Bryan Wynn. (Source)

Movie Problem: Back to the Future

Ok, I might think of a better name for these. But these posts will be similar to CinemaSins or Cracked.com's lovely analysis of famous films. Today I'm reposting an email I recently sent my good friend Mike, and enhancing it with picture examples. Enjoy.

---


The problem? I think that the Back to the Future series doesn't obey its own time travel rules. Maybe this is old news and I'm just now getting this.

In the first movie, it's established that it's a Slow, Self-correcting Dynamic Timeline. Meaning, if Marty didn't help his parents get back together, he'd have never been born. But instead of instantly erasing him from existence when he saved his dad from getting hit by his grandfather's car (that's how his dad originally met his mom) They track this in the movie by watching his brother and sister slowly fade away in a photograph, since they're older than Marty, they would be "corrected" first. It's a slow correction, not instant, which was useful to give the main character time to fix things and thus is why I call it a Slow, Self-correcting Dynamic Timeline. Probably one of the easier time-travel theories to work with in fiction.

Anyways, in Back to the Future 2, that's supposedly not what happens at all. Suddenly everything is explained as Multiverse. Meaning, Biff goes back in time, and uses the Sports Almanac to create a tangent timeline, as explained by Doc Brown.

But. Buuut. You can't have both Multiverse and Slow, Self-correcting Dynamic Timeline at the same time. Gotta be one or the other, but I think the film tried to do both. But let's start with why it has to be one or the other.

Ok, let's say only Multiverse theory applies. How would Doc and Marty travel to alternate Hill Valley 1985? If Biff made that tangent universe, only he would experience the new changes. Heck, he probably then couldn't deliver the DeLorean back to the right future! He'd just land the DeLorean in Tangent Timeline Where Biff Rules All. So no DeLorean for Doc and Marty! Even if they somehow magically got the DeLorean back, they're using it to travel in the Good Timeline, right? Why would they suddenly appear in the Tangent Timeline Where Biff Rules All? There's no real reason for them to.

So now let's say only Slow, Self-correcting Dynamic Timeline. Biff hopped back to 1955, handed himself the Sports Almanac, causing a major impact in the timestream, a point where ripples happen. Doc explained this in the first movie, that the changes are fixed throughout time slowly like ripples in a pond. This is why Marty's older siblings are erased before him, as seen in the photograph. Anyways, Biff caused ripples. These haven't hit Hill Valley 2015 yet, which is why Old Biff can safely travel there and deliver the DeLorean so Marty and Doc can use it. But they have hit 1985 (probably while future hijinks were going down), which is why Biff Rules All there when Marty and Doc arrive. This even explains why the two of them can travel back to 1985 and 1955, because now it's all ultimately one timeline, no tangents to speak of. So then everything starts fitting: the only solution is to stop the ripples at their source, just like in the first movie, by going back to 1955 and preventing young Biff from using the Sports Almanac.

So ignore past Phil. The second movie actually obeys the original theory from the first movie, Slow, Self-correcting Dynamic Timeline. The real problem is that Doc Brown was off his rocker. He confused me. Because, in the second movie, he clearly explains Multiverse Theory, which as I just explained, does not apply.

Sad, because Doc Brown probably draws the simplest, best on-screen example of Multiverse theory that most of us learned it from.

That and the opening credits of Sliders.

But Phil, what about the third movie? Pfft. The third movie is just the same plot as the first movie, in the old west, with Doc Brown being more of a kid and Marty being more of an adult. The only time travel problem they deal with there is that they accidentally save a woman that should have died, because Doc is once again an idiot.

Heck. This whole series exists because of Doc's idiocy in inventing the time machine in the first place. Without his invention, Marty could've never accidentally screwed up time originally and we'd be fine. Gah.

NerdRage: No Love in Comics

This just happened on Facebook:

In reference to http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=poll&id=181 in which they point out that famous superhero couples like Spider-Man & Mary Jane and Superman & Lois Lane are no longer together. (No, they didn't bother mentioning Cyclops & Jean Grey...Odd) And apparently one of my long-time obscure favorite couples of Jack Kirby's, Mister Miracle and Big Barda are no longer together. Argh.

Pay attention, people. In comics, no one's allowed to die or get married. 

Spiral Goggles

Sometimes I explore the Goodwill Outlet near my work office to see if they have any old toys, Nerf guns, gadgets, furniture or other whatnots worth salvaging. Yesterday I found these fun goggles.

Iron Man Mark P or my ideal Iron Man suit

So it's that time of the year again, 2 months-ish before Halloween. Around this time I start planning my major crafting project of the year, my costume. Which this year will hopefully also be used at this year's St. Louis ComicCon and maybe beyond that.

Here's my current concept:

I call it the Mark P, since it's my personal variant on the movie designs. Photoshopped this together from images from the Marvel Heroes video game. Basically it's a hybrid of the Mark IV (Start of Iron Man 2) and Mark VII (Avengers). Mainly the abs, upper arms and shoulders come from the Mark IV, and the overall paintjob (no silver) with the rest being from Mark VII. Also, since I'll have to use a black undersuit, I went ahead and worked that in to see how it'd look.

I attempted a similar suit, just by eyeballing the Mark IV back in 2011, using EVA foam floor mats. The result was sadly under-par, and never truly finished. I didn't complete a helmet, and most of the pieces wouldn't even stay on me.

But I've had time to rethink how I'd do it, and did a minor test last ComicCon with my Tony Stark costume.

Also, I've been inspired by the youtuber Stealth and his tutorials, which really simplify alot of my problems. He recently finished a full Iron Patriot suit in under a month, which really has me hopeful I could do something similar.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHeroTutorials

I'll post the progress here as I go.

Starting a new blog!

Ok! Starting a new blog so I can broadcast whatever projects I'm working on, what I want to rant about, cool stuff I find online, basically whatever I wanna share, etc. Hopefully this version of my blog/site will last longer than the previous ones. (I've been trying off and on to do a version of Rusty Raygun since my senior year of college, so roughly the past 4 years...heh)

FYI, I probably won't post any real content until tomorrow.

Partially inspired by these blogs and sites, which I've been following for ages:

JimSmash

SuperPunch

ComicsAlliance

Indistinguishable From Magic

JohnsonArms