Day of the Hobgoblins

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on Day of the Hobgoblins

Day of the Hobgoblins

By: Andrew Hines

With the end of the current series fast approaching, Peter Parker is in for what may be one of the craziest adventures of his tenure as Spider-Man. We've already seen him put the end of the world on the back burner (ba-dum tssss), possibly cure Dr. Connors for good and put the world's worst sidekick in a permanent time-out. Now, with both his life and identity on the line, two hobgoblins dueling it out and Madame Web seeing visions of a dark future, this is the beginning of the end for our web-headed friend.

Dan Slott has done a fantastic job in the nearly two years since his run on Amazing Spider-Man began back in 2010. The recent partnership with Christos Gage has been a really good one. There are all kinds of great characters in this issue. The story picks up after the events of #695, and the pacing continues steadily. The dialogue is great and in parts I found myself reading it in the voices of the old animated series of the 90s. The story's good enough and tackles the two-part arc pretty well. The character interaction is pretty good and the ending is just enough of a teaser to keep you interested in the next issue.

This is one of the best single pages of ASM in recent memory. The art team does very well with Giuseppe Camuncoli as the penciller and Dan Green as the inker. Camuncoli's art works well and Antonio Fabela's colors are the dominant force in this issue. This page to the right is one of the greatest intro pages I've seen in a Spider book for quite some time. The best part is the inclusion of the majority of the issue's cast. You really see just how dire it is for Spidey at this point. The framing and the scale of the page are just phenomenal.

This get's an "A-" simply because it's a little on the nose for Haloween being just around the corner. It's a good issue and a great middle point in this three-part arc, but the fact that it is the mid point doesn't help it. Buy this one. At the very least it leads us into the end of ASM. As a piece of that history, it's worth owning.

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Posted in Cool Characters, Super-Hero Stuff

Caption Challenge 132 Results

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on Caption Challenge 132 Results

Many thanks for the funny entries for Caption Challenge 132! You were tasked with coming up with the best replacement dialog for this panel:

And I've picked out my favorites below:

  • Gero: I think the acid is starting to kick in…
  • Big Mac: They all tenderize meat Thor, just pick one.
  • Rick S.: HOW YA LIKE THEM APPLES!!!!…AND BY APPLES, I MEAN HAMMERS!!
  • Bad Muthabox: “Worst juggling act ever.”
  • Dan Gonzalez: Even Loki’s booger can outwit Thor!
  • thejay: Boy, when he said “it’s thor’s day, let’s get hammered” he wasn’t kidding.
  • Bael: Stop. Hammer time.
  • Onikagenoken: “UUUUGGG, we’ve been at this store for hours. All the hammers look good on you, just pick one please.”
  • The Atomic Punk: Hammer? How about helping me find my legs?!?
  • Skybandit: Asgardian chess is confusing!

I think my personal top entry out of those is Dan Gonzalez', just because I now want to name something in my life "Loki's Booger". Band, car, dog, anything, really.

Thanks again for entering, everyone!

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

Character Challenge 103: Zombies Scary Stuff

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on Character Challenge 103: Zombies Scary Stuff

I am not a huge zombie scary stuff fan, but since it IS Halloween, I figured we might as well give it a whirl.

So your challenge this week is:

Create an awesome zombie!

Make Something Scary!

It could be a shambling zombie or a spooky ghost, a cackling witch or a disgusting pirate. Take a classic kids' Halloween costume and give it the really scary treatment. I'll pick my personal favorites when the week is over, with the one I like best being featured in the right column for the week. The rules otherwise are the same as always:


(Click to embiggen.)

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Just make them good!

(ETA: Apparently people hate zombies, so I changed it to a generic Scary Stuff Halloween type challenge.)

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Posted in Challenges, Character Design Challenges

Pumpkin Pop Quiz Results

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on Pumpkin Pop Quiz Results

All righty, after many hours of server woes, it appears we are back up and almost functional. Wahoo! As a result, here are the entries for our last Pop Quiz, which challenged you to come up with a cool Halloween pumpkin design:

As you can see, there were some fun and cool entries. My personal favorite is Jack's snowman-style grim homage. It reminds me a bit of what Calvin would get up to, an equal mixture of fun and frightening.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and Happy Halloween!

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

META: Site issues

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | Comments Off on META: Site issues

As you could tell, the site had a lot of issues yesterday, and I sincerely apologize. Believe me, I am just as frustrated as you. DreamHost informed me that the hardware hosting HeroMachine.com (and lots of others) failed, and they had to move everything to a new machine. They are restoring everything from backup.

I am able to get on just fine now both as the WordPress admin and as a general visitor, so please let me know in this thread if you cannot or if there's something missing.

In the future, you might also want to bookmark the HeroMachine Facebook page, as that's where I post site status updates when it's down.

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Posted in Meta

Moar Punkins!

Posted on October 27, 2012 by | Comments Off on Moar Punkins!

HeroMachiner NHA247 sent in some super-hero related pumpkins he carved for this Halloween. I love 'em! If you have your own real-world sculpted vegetables to show off, by all means post a link or send 'em to me.

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Posted in Things I Like

Pop Quiz: Jack-O-Lantern

Posted on October 27, 2012 by | Comments Off on Pop Quiz: Jack-O-Lantern

It's Halloween Weekend in the U.S., and while last week I challenged you to make a mask, this week I'm inspired by Blue Blazer's nifty Justice Pumpkin. So I'm tasking you to:

Make your own Halloween Pumpkin in HeroMachine 3!

If you don't feel like making your own basic pumpkin shape, there's one in Head-Zombies (both with and without pre-cut eye, nose, and mouth openings). If you prefer an alternate pumpkin shape, one of the tips in Hammerknight's recipe card from a while back might come in handy as well.

You only get one entry -- that's right, just one! So make it your best. Most of the other rules are the same as for a regular challenge, but instead of a whole week I'll announce my favorites some time tomorrow. Here's how to make an entry:


(Click to embiggen.)

I'll pick one entry as my personal favorite, which will get to be featured in the side bar to the right for ultimate* glory! As a bonus you're allowed to say you won the Internet for a few days.

Good luck!

(*For very narrow definitions of "glory" only. See box** for details.)
(**There is no box.)

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Posted in Challenges, Pop Quiz

I had a hunch he'd say that.

Posted on October 27, 2012 by | Comments Off on I had a hunch he'd say that.

(Hunch, Igor, see what I did there?! Apparently I've been thinking about "Young Frankenstein" in light of Frankenstorm too much. From "Cat-Man Comics" number 2, 1942.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Avengers vs Punisher

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Avengers vs Punisher

Avengers vs Punisher

By: Andrew Hines

We've seen a lot of the Punisher over the last decade or so. He's had major resurgence after being little more than a rage outlet for close to 40 years when he was introduced in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #129. He's evolved as a character, somewhat, but his intentions have never wavered. He's still a killing machine and I don't believe that will ever change. That's where we are now. The heroes are at the ends of their collective ropes, Spider-Man especially. He enlists the help of the Avengers to stop Frank Castle once and for all. That's as much as I can say here. Now, on with the review.

Greg Rucka has penned a possible masterwork in the first issue of this five-part limited series. The best part of it is the attention to the story itself rather than simply making it another shoot-anything-that-moves Punisher comic. Whether you've been following Punisher since your momma let you read the big boy comics or if this is your first venture into Frank Castle's world, it's a great place to start. The pacing is fabulous. The dialogue is amazing and character specific. Rucka doesn't give Spidey his usual fight one-liners or witty banter, though there are a few little niblets of that. You can definitely tell that he's had enough. I know I say this from time to time, but the character interaction, particularly with Spider-Man and the Avengers, is phenomenal.

The art by Carmine Di Giandomenico is awesome. I mean, really. It's dark, both in terms of style and lighting. It's just so incredibly fitting that it's awesome to see. I mean that in the truest sense of the word. I am in total awe of the pages. They may not be the most crisp, clean lines anyone's ever seen but they're exactly what the story needs. The inks are heavy in al of the right places, adding more to the necessary shadows. Matt Hollingsworth's colors are great. Again, they're dark, the shading is great and the lighting is just magic. These two combine to make something stunning. I mean, it's sort of hard to see it from just this page, but it's the most I could show without a spoiler or three.

For all of that and more, this comic get's the rather unusual "A+" grade. The writing, the art and the characters themselves make this a can't-miss series if you are a fan of the Punisher, Spider-Man or the Avengers. To give you more incentive, it's even a dollar less than the usual Marvel stuff with its price tag of $2.99. What are you waiting for? Go out and get it.

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Posted in Cool Characters, Super-Hero Stuff

Sharing Day: Your Feedback

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | Comments Off on Sharing Day: Your Feedback

For today's Sharing Day, I would like to ask you to sound off about three things:

  • Your overall opinion about the blog portion of the site -- are there things you enjoy, things you hate, things you want to see done differently? Basically anything you want to say about the non-app part of what we do here.
  • Your opinion about comic-book reviews McKnight57 has been posting. Are you interested in what's currently being published in the comics world or are you indifferent?
  • What is your favorite Seinfeld moment?

If you respond to all three, you can request a One Minute Sketch of whatever you like, and I'll do a sketch in one minute or less of it and post it as a comment.

Ready, set, SOUND OFF!

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Posted in Sharing Day