What Were They Thinking?: Goblindegook

Marvel are the best at being the worst. It's a phrase that we've used often here on What Were They Thinking (the series where we look at all the stupidest, most ill-advised things in comic book history). Whether it's terrible storylines (usually involving a respected female character being abused in some form or another), awful farmed out reboots or being assholes to creators, it's amazing that Marvel actually function. Oh and lets not forget the crossovers, which, if they had physical form, would look like something out of Resident Evil they're so messed up. And the resurrections of course, I mean, we covered those enough on the last two lists, but when you can't even let Barney Barton stay dead after over 40 years, you know you've got a problem.

So, as I'm sure you've all guessed by now, this week we're talking about Marvel, but which stupid incident is it this week. Which screwy storyline are we going to laugh at? Well, how about a storyline that actually shouldn't have been screwy, but then the editors got involved. Ladies and gentle-mutants, I give you; The Hobgoblin Saga.

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Movie News of the Week

Hey everyone, just tiding things over until the weekend and I will hopefully being seeing a couple of movies to review. So for the time being, let’s see what news has come out this week to keep us going. I'll be linking all the articles and avoiding anything too spoilery here, so I'll leave it up to you whether you want to read any further or not.

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Caption Contest #87 Results

Ok, so last week I asked you guys to give us the best replacement dialogue for this panel:

And as usual, here are my top 5 entries:

William A. Peterson: Crybabies like you are always losing your head over something!

HerrD: You voted for WHO?

HerrD: I don'tĀ CARE how much you saved on your car insurance

PrimeLionstar: Can you do me a favor? How sharp would you say this is?

Skoul: Just a little off the top, right?

But, as always, there can only be one. And that person is...

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The List: Top 10 Longest Deaths In Comics

Following on from last weeks list, where we looked at the shortest periods between a comic book character being killed off and them being resurrected, this week we're looking at the longest periods between the death and resurrection of characters. We're not looking at characters that have never been resurrected (amazingly, there are actually some) because that's a list for another time. As we all know, nobody stays dead in comics (unless they're Uncle Ben). Many people look at Barry Allen as the greatest example of a comic book death and some people say that, prior to his resurrection in 2008, his was the last true death in comics. However, Barry was only pushing daisies for a paltry 22 years and 7 months. That's not even enough to make the top 20 if this list went that far. So, lets get in to it shall we.

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Character Design Challenge #309 – A Valiant Effort

Eighty years ago today, Arthurian comic strip character Prince Valiant made his first appearance.

Your challenge this week is to create an original Arthurian character. Could be a knight, wizard, peasant, nobleman … whatever floats your boat. There is no limit on number of entries.

Please follow the instructions below for naming your files.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warning. Only post characters that have been created solely using Hero Machine, and that you know for certain have never been entered inĀ a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.Ā 

All entries must be in JPG or PNG formĀ (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (likeĀ the HeroMachine :,ImageShack,Ā PhotoBucket, or whatever);

  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • Please name your filesas [your name]-[character name].[file extension]Ā before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his ā€œBayou Belleā€ character image asĀ DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.

Please make the link goĀ directly to the imageĀ (likeĀ this) andĀ not to a hosting jump pageĀ (likeĀ this).

This contest will close on Sunday, FebruaryĀ 19thĀ at 9:00am Eastern.

Meta: Site issues

Hey all, just a quick note to say I've been having some issues with the server all morning, having to reboot it every so often. It looks like maybe there was a malicious file added to an old directory; I've removed it with a security plugin and hopefully set things so it doesn't happen again but I'm keeping an eye on it.

Apologies for any downtime we've had and thanks as always for being a part of the community!

Character Design Challenge #308 – The International Legion for Justice: Phase 4 – Results!

Great entries this week!

Honourable mention goes out to Primelionstar for this transforming take on the character.

And the win goes to AMS. Beautiful detail and an amazing take on a traditional Inukshuk. Well done you!

 

Anime Talk: Time For Amore

Hey Machiners, Seeing how it is only a few days away from Valentine's day I decided now would be a good time to take a peek into the world of Amore. Ā So today on Anime talk I am going to talk about my top 5 Romance Animes!

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Poll Position: Who’s Best

After a three week spell deciding who is the best version of certain famous DC comics characters, this week we're returning to our original set-up of Poll Positions that will lead into lists. However, I'm not quite ready to let go of the "which of these characters is the best version" format quite yet. So, are there any other characters who have had multiple versions whilst still retaining the same name? And is there any topical reason to do a list? Hmmm. Oh wait, Doctor Who.

Seen as Peter Capaldi has recently announced that the up-coming series will be his last, now seems like a rather appropriate time to decide Who is the best Doctor, or, to shorten the question, who's best? We're only counting the 12 numbered Doctors, so the late great John Hurt does not count (R.I.P).

[polldaddy poll="9661928"]

What Were They Thinking?: What A Load of (Ta)Rot

So here on What Were They Thinking? (the series where we look at the stupidest, most ill-advised things in all of comic book history) we talk about Marvel and DC a lot, and that's understandable. They are the Big 2, the comics publishers with the longest histories and the largest outputs of stories and behind the curtains politics to pull from when it comes to bad ideas. But that doesn't mean that indie comics are off the hook. No sir, they can be even worse at times *cough* Image *cough*. But today, instead of talking about the people you might expect, I've found something that really, really needs to be highlighted on this series. So we're going over to Broadsword Comics and their long running series; Tarot: Witch Of The Black Rose.

(Reader Discretion Is Advised)

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