This weeks pick is Captain America written by Ed Brubaker, and Illustrated by Alan Davis, Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten and Dexter Ponsor.

This isn’t a random pick by me, I’ve been following Captain America since July last year, and wasn’t sure, until now, whether I would continue snagging it monthly. After the the last few issues, I can give you a resounding yes to that question. This is an incredible read.

Spoiler Alert

The following is a brief synopsis of issues 1-7 to make a point as to why this is my pick of the week, if you are planning on picking all seven up and want to enter completely clueless, skip to the bottom, thanks.

Written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Alan Davis this Cap run has been an absolute blast for me to follow. It started off being pretty abstract, with a heavy sci-fi influence. The first battle is simply Cap and some Hydra operatives, who are working for a mysterious operative, “Bravo”, who just so happened to be one of Caps partners from the 50’s that ends up getting stuck in an alternate reality created by Jimmy Jupiter. (You following this?) He then finds himself being assaulted by a giant “Ameridroid” with the consciousness of scientist Lyle Dekker who dreamed of being as powerful as Cap. This of course was simply a distraction so that Bravo and company could kidnap Jimmy Jupiter from a heavily guarded facility to utilize their evil plan to pull Cap back into the alternate dimension to show him what America had become over the last fifty years. (inhale, exhale).
End Synopsis

The synopsis might sound a bit outlandish, but issue five tied everything together so beautifully I almost forgot the random chaos I had read in previous issues. Brubakers writing moved several odd and abstract ideas with political undertones into a perfectly worded statement. Is Captain America simply a shill for ideals that our country abandoned years ago? The internal struggle caused by Steve Rogers asking himself that question is now causing his mind to shut off the cells affected by the super-soldier serum and leave him defenseless at random points in combat. One can only assume the issues to come will have him battling this struggle, while fighting Hydra minions, and the creator of the new mad bombs.

Pick this up digital or physically you won’t regret giving this one a read.

Nintendo fired the first shot in the wars of the next generation of consoles last year with little details and, frankly, a lot of confusion. Since this time both Sony and Microsoft have been pretty quiet with regards to what they have up their sleeves for the “Playsation 4” and “Xbox 720”, and probably will continue to be until they are ready to show off their new machines.

However, tech blogs have been buzzing as of late that the next generation of Xbox will be rocking an AMD 7000 series GPU, but IGN has “confirmed with their sources” that the next Xbox’s GPU will actually be the 6000 series.

… our sources have confirmed that mass production of the system’s GPU will indeed begin by the end of 2012 but will not, however, be based on AMD’s 7000 series Southern Islands GPU. Instead, the processor will be derived from the 6000 series, which was introduced last year. More specifically, it will be akin to the Radeon HD 6670, which offers support for DirectX11, multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output. The chip currently has a market price of upwards of $79.99.

In real terms, the Xbox 720’s raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360…

Their sources also noted that the “Xbox 720” will most likely see release around October or November of 2013, dashing the hopes of those who were hoping to see the next generation of consoles by the end of this year.

While I am extremely excited and curious to see what the next generation of consoles bring to the gaming world, I’m okay with waiting almost another two years to see an “Xbox 720” or a “Playstation 4” as developers are still getting a lot of mileage from these current consoles. As an Xbox owner, it’s almost hard to believe that as of November of this year the Xbox 360 will be 7 years old, especially with the quality of games that continue to come out year after year pushing the limits of the hardware more and more.

To my recollection this is the longest gap I’ve experienced between console releases, but I’d much rather Microsoft and Sony wait until the technology has made a big enough leap forward to release a console that is truly the “next generation” as opposed to releasing something that is only a small step forward that would be hard to invest in knowing that a few more years down the line something truly more powerful would be released (Sega 32X anyone?). It seems now is that time, far more powerful technology is available, and it’s sounding like 2013 may be the year our beloved Xbox 360’s and PS3’s see the curtain fall on their time to make way for the next generation.

A lot of the writers here are based in or around good old Salt Lake City, UT. I’ve never been, but from what I hear, it’s a nice place to live. As for me, I grew up in Northeast Ohio. I grew up learning how awesome my birthplace used to be. Akron used to be “Rubber Capital of the World”, and Cleveland was known for more than their lake catching on fire. One thing that I always thought to myself as a young comic-loving lad was, “At least Siegel and Shuster created Superman here!” Yet the city itself didn’t seem to want to celebrate that fact too much. Sure, when the Man of Steel got a stamp, it was first unveiled in Cleveland, but there is no monument to Superman or his creators here, unless you count Shuster’s boyhood home (which they tore down). Luckily, there is a non-profit based in Cleveland that wants to change that, The Siegel and Shuster Society!

Local Cleveland paper, the Plain Dealer reported that the City Council will likely vote to allow the Society to build a Superman shrine in Cleveland Hopkins Airport (CLE). As you can see from the artist’s rendition above, the centerpiece of the exhibit will be a larger than life Superman statue, appropriate for photo taking. While, that is certainly cool, I’m more excited about the accompanying text which will educate airport-goers not only about Superman’s creation but also about his creators. As you may or may not know, Siegel and Shuster had to have a small miracle happen just to be acknowledged for their contribution to the comics world, even in the comics themselves!

So, the hard part is over, if the city OKs everything, the Society can build, the only problem? They are a non-profit organization and the project is estimated to take anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 to build. While an anonymous donor has already contributed $5,000, you can still help if you feel the need to have a part in a piece of history. Me? I just can’t wait till I fly back to visit old friends, and have my picture taken in front of the Action Ace myself!

Donations can be sent to the Siegel and Shuster Society, 7100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 44103.

P.S. The Siegel and Shuster Society also used funding to restore the Shuster home. They’re a good bunch of people there.

This week’s Blu-ray pick of the week is the Hugh Jackman-starring, father-son bonding, robot-fighting flick, Real Steel. I know, I know, “Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots: The Movie!”, but hear me out before you turn your nose up.

Some friends and I went to see Real Steel in theaters expecting a sort of action flick with tons of giant robots fighting and plenty of the charming Hugh Jackman to boot. What we got instead was a surprisingly heart-felt film with less robot boxing than what may have been portrayed in any trailer or commercial for it.

Real Steel follows the story of Charlie (Jackman) who once was a great boxer, but now carts around a fighting robot to various underground venues, making bad bets and enemies along the way. Human vs. human boxing has all but been over-shadowed by the ridiculously popular robot boxing, and Charlie tries to carve out a living with his bot outside of the professional arenas. Aided by his friend/love interest/mechanic, Bailey (Evangeline Lily), Charlie is barely making ends meet and owes a lot of dangerous people a lot of money. It’s not long before Charlie’s estranged son, Max (Dakota Goyo), enters the picture through a tragic chain of events that will, of course, affect Charlie’s life in some incredible ways. Once Charlie and Max find a sparring robot they dub Atom the two really start to bond, and given the setting this actually works very well. Max has all the faith in the world that his smaller-by-comparison robot can compete with any other boxing bot out there, and as he learns more about his father, begins to have that same faith in him as well.

We’ve seen this type of father-son-bonding story before in superior films (Rocky Balboa anyone?), but director Shawn Levy executes a film that has a lot of heart and somehow manages to avoid becoming too unbelievable or cheesy despite one of the main focuses being 10-foot-plus tall boxing robots. Also, there are fighting 10-foot-plus tall boxing robots. While there may be far less robot fighting than one may expect to see, there is -in my opinion- the perfect amount to balance out the action and family drama. The robot bouts are exciting and well rendered, and unlike the Transformers films, easy to follow.

Going into Real Steel I never expected to like it as much as I did. I was expecting more of an action and popcorn flick with plenty of robot fighting to entertain me for a few hours; what I got instead was a surprisingly touching, decently acted and scripted film with the bonus of awesome fighting robots. I never expected to be making a recommendation such as this, but I’m telling you: Check out Real Steel, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Special Features:

Four featurettes:

Countdown to the Fight: The Charlie Kenton Story

Sugar Ray Leonard: Cornerman’s Champ

Making of Metal Valley

Building the Bots

Deleted and extended scenes:

Extended “Meet Ambush”

Deleted “Butterfly” Storyline

Bloopers

Audio commentary with director, Shawn Levy

Real Steel is available on Blu-ray and DVD today, you can pick it up over at Amazon.com!

Big Shiny Girlcast is back and due to several requests we will now be recording about once every two weeks (so there’s lots of the Girlcast in your future!). The latest episode of the podcast, “Issue #2: The Guinea Pig of the Sea,” discusses Bandai, SOPA and Cosplay, DC’s New 52 2nd Wave, Thor, Avengers, Ghost Rider, Green Arrow’s possible CW Pilot, Otaku / Geek Dating, Skyrim and more! This week’s “Ask the Geek Girls” segment finds us discussing the pro’s and con’s of online geek dating – you won’t want to miss it!

On this week’s podcast: Jessie – Miss Mecha on Big Shiny Robot!, Kelly – Scarlett Robotica on Big Shiny Robot! and Darcy from geekgirlsftw.blogspot.com

You can find it here on the site or download it over on our Big Shiny Robot iTunes feed.

To comment on this week’s episode, send us a question, or answer on of our burning questions, just leave a comment here at the bottom of the post or email the podcast at jessie@bigshinyrobot.com

Topic Timeline (for your fast forwarding pleasures):

Bandai Leaves North America = 3:58 – 18:23; SOPA and Cosplay: Yes? No? Bad? = 18:23 – 25:02; DC’s 2nd Wave of New 52 Comics: The How, What, Why and an overview of the DC Earths…there are a lot of them, and we’re somewhat confused by it. = 25:02 – 31:20; We hear ourselves echoing but forget to edit it out later (don’t judge us!)= 31:20 – 23:03; Fox News wants you to be afraid of everything – Comic Books included = 23:03 – 44:22; Movies and TV: Thor is sexy even during re-writes, The Avengers rock our world, and Ghost Rider…yeah… = 44:22 – 59:39; Green Arrow might get a CW Pilot! Is this good news or bad news, both? = 59:39 – 1:12:05; “Ask The Geek Girls” – Otaku/Geek Dating = 1:12:05 – 1:34:25; Recommendations / Ending stuff = 1:34:25 – 1:40:24.

There has been a lot of speculation as to who the villains aside from Loki may be in the upcoming Avengers film, but it appears Kevin Fiege and Joss Whedon have debunked two of the more popular theories: The Skrulls and Red Skull. Fiege had this to say first, regarding the Skrulls:

“…It’s not Skrulls, I’ve been clear about that. Beyond that, we want to hide it. The identity of the alien race is not impactful. It exists in the comic books, but we’re not setting up the Kree-Skrull war or anything like that.”

He followed it up with this regarding Red Skull:

“Was Skull vaporised at the end of the movie, or thrust into another realm?” asks Feige. “That remains to be seen. It would be fun to see Skull in future, but he’s not in this one.”

Joss Whedon also had a comment on Red Skull, but was a little more “beat-around-the-bush-y” with his non-answer:

“I do have a comment on that, it’s…oh, you’re breaking up!”

It’s probably safe to say at this point that we will most likely not being seeing the Skrulls in the Avengers film, but I’m still a little unsure on the subject of Red Skull. Upon my latest viewing of Captain America: The First Avengeron Blu-ray a week ago I strongly believe that Red Skull isn’t completely vaporized after grasping the Cosmic Cube during his final bout with Cap. If you pay attention the effect is incredibly close to the same effect that occurs in the Thor film as our heroes are transporting between the realms, right down to the sound effect. It really wouldn’t surprise me if Red Skull was transported to one of the Nine Realms and we see him at some point in the future make a villainous return . . . Perhaps and after-credits scene in the Avengers? . . .

In any case, it’s still wide open for debate as to what allegiances Loki will make to wage war on Earth and The Avengers, but luckily we only have a few more months to wait before we find out! In the mean time you can check out Empire’s Avengers covers below!

The Avengers hits theaters on May 4, 2012, is directed by Joss Whedon, and stars Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, and Samuel L. Jackson.

[Empire]

Who from the Marvel Universe would you like to see Loki join forces with to battle the Avengers? Sound off in the comments below!

This week’s Book of the Week may be a book you’ve heard mentioned before over the last few months. It’s Stephen King’s latest novel, 11/22/63, and marks a first for me. Up until this book I had never read any Stephen King, never so much as added any of his work to my lengthy “Must Read” list. However, the story that Mr. King weaves and the pictures he paints in this novel left a lasting impression on me, which is why I’ve selected his latest for Big Shiny Robot’s Book of the Week.

11/22/63 begins of course by introducing us to our protagonist, Jake Epping – a 35-year old English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine. Recently divorced from his alcoholic wife, Epping is not an extraordinary man, but certainly an interesting one. He’s intelligent, resourceful, caring, and at times very charming. The book doesn’t take long before diving in to the time traveling aspect. Epping is approached by his long-time friend, Al, owner of a local diner, who divulges a secret he’s been keeping for years: In the store room of his diner is a portal that leads to 1958 Lisbon Falls, Maine.

From here this novel truly becomes nothing short of a page-turner. As Jake Epping takes his first steps into the past we find out that this portal takes him back to the exact same moment in time in 1958, every time – and if one steps back through the portal to the present, then back again to the past, all the changes one would have made on that previous trip are reset and you have only been gone 3 minutes in the present. After a brief trip to 1958 to have a milk shake at a local shop, Epping returns to the present completely convinced of this impossible portal and Al approaches him with a plan: To stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Al had been living in the past for 4 years (still, just 3 minutes in present time) attempting to do this, but had become ill with lung cancer and had to abandon his mission. After some convincing, and armed with all of Al’s notes of the past containing crucial information about Lee Harvey Oswald and a suitcase full of cash from some sports gambling, Epping takes on this task and steps through the portal to live in the past for the next 5 years and eventually stop the assassination of JFK.

For a good portion of this book we live in the late 50’s and early 60’s with Jake Epping, who takes on the false identity of George Amberson. Over the course of these 5 years, Epping has a sort of to-do list of things to accomplish in the past; stop the murder of the family of one of his students from his adult GED classes he teaches on the side in the present, prevent the paralyzation of a young girl at the hands of her own father in a hunting accident, and spend a great deal of time in the latter years spying on Oswald to find if he works alone in the assassination or if there was truly a second shooter. Epping finds himself more and more becoming his false identity of George Amberson, and as he settles into his life in the past makes some memorable friends and even falls in love with a local school teacher in Texas, Sadie Dunhill. But even as Jake Epping carves out a wonderful life for himself while keeping his true intentions and origins a secret, the past is obdurate, and is constantly trying to dispose of this virus from the present who his attempting to change the timeline. During his time in the past, Jake makes dangerous associations with shady bookies, must constantly face the past head-on as it fights back against the changes he’s trying to make, fight for the love of a woman he never expected to meet, find what connections the mysterious “Yellow Card Man” has to the past and present, and face extraordinary violence as he moves forward with his plans to stop the assassination of JFK to -in theory- make the present a much better place.

King paints an incredibly beautiful picture of a more simple time in America, capturing apple pie-eating Americana while keeping the story firmly planted in a believable setting in that among the romance that many have with this time in American history, there was also a lot of turmoil. As King pulls Jake Epping through his adventures in the past he creates a sense of suspense and mystery that only escalates as it moves forward, and even as our main character begins to find happiness in his new life in the past with the love of his life, there is constantly that voice in the back of your head reminding you that he doesn’t belong and the past is going to fight back to remove him from the equation to retain the timeline as it is.

I honestly can’t recommend 11/22/63 enough. Being that this is my first introduction to Stephen King’s writing, I can’t say how this stacks up to his other works, but I can tell you as someone who does a lot of reading across many different genres, this is a must read as far as I’m concerned.

You can pick up 11/22/63 by Stephen King over at Amazon.com!

On Sundays in the past we have featured a convention sketch from our own collections from various conventions over the years. Today we are bringing that back with a sweet Zatanna sketch by artist Eric Jones from Wonder Con 2011! This particular piece comes from Vagatron’s wife’s collection, check it out!

If you have a piece of convention art you’d like us to feature, send it over to us with some details (artist, what convention it came from, year, etc.) to editor@bigshinyrobot.com!

In an effort to foil an assassination attempt on the Chancellor, the Jedi Council sees fit to send Obi-wan Kenobi deep undercover, infiltrating a Republic prison, and joining up with Cad Bane’s group.

It’s an action packed adventure, that is a great start for a four-part arc.

It’s always a hard thing to judge the first piece of a longer story because there really isn’t any closure or anything definitive to latch on to, but quite a bit about this story came to mind and conjured up some excited smiles.

Ultimately, there’s a darkness about this episode. Not just in the color palate or the fact that it’s at night, but I can’t imagine anything darker than the Jedi have set into motion a plan as dark and devious as something Darth Sidious would be capable of. This is a plan of deception, putting a Jedi into harms way after faking his own death. It calls to mind something Yoda said at the end of Attack of the Clones to Obi-wan about Count Dooku. “Joined the dark side, Dooku has. Lies, deceit, creating mistrust are his ways now.”

What are they doing but lying, deceiving and creating mistrust? Particularly on the part of Anakin.

Anakin has no idea that Obi-wan is alive. With his struggles to keep his loved ones alive and seeking revenge for their deaths, this deception has already pushed him to the teetering brink between the light and the dark. Add to the fact that Mace Windu is in charge of this operation and it’s easy to see why Anakin dislikes him so much and for so many reasons in Revenge of the Sith.

This is a step backward for the Jedi. They’re selling out their ideals. And even if they foil this assassination plot (which they obviously do) they’ve lost by drifting closer to the dark side of the force and their eventual ruin.

Visually, at least for the first third of the episode, I got a very strong Kurosawa noir vibe. They were in the evil underworld, completely out of their element, much like Toshiro Mifune in Stray Dog, or the cops chasing the kidnapper in High and Low. The scenery matched that sort of vibe and I liked it very much.

For the rest of the episode, I felt like I was watching some sad mix between Brubaker and Serpico.

Obi-wan is in prison, in a bad place, and he’s got no one he can rely on. Add to that the prison escape where he’s expected to kill clones and anyone else standing in the way since he’s impersonating a hardened killer and you have all the ingredients of a fascinating moral quandary for Ben Kenobi.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this episode showed another improvement in animation and lighting. There was one moment in particular, when Obi-wan swallows the voice modulator, where the internal lighting and the work James Arnold Taylor did mixing his different voices came together to give me a moment that, on a technical level, simply made my jaw drop.

That’s one of the things I absolutely adore about this show. Every episode there seems to be a moment, at least once, sometimes more, where I just have to stand back and marvel at what they’ve accomplished.

As for “Deception,” for the first part of a four part arc, this episode set the scene nicely, but also gave me so much to chew on as far as the lore of Star Wars and that fascinating bridge between Episode II and III.

Yesterday on their blog, The Source, DC announced they would be rolling out a new logo for all of their entertainment brands. Here is the accompanying press release and photos that came with the big announcement. I’d be interested to hear peoples thoughts or opinions on the new logo. I myself don’t think I care for it, but I’m sure over time that’ll just go away as I just get used to it.

BURBANK, CA, January 19, 2012 – DC Entertainment, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company and home to iconic brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD, revealed today a new brand identity.  The new identity is reflective of the company’s mission to fully realize the value of a rich portfolio of brands, stories and characters, distinguished by incredible breadth and depth across publishing, media and merchandise.  A new logo for DC Comics was also introduced, closely aligning with DC Entertainment’s new mark.

“It’s a new era at DC Entertainment and the new look reflects a dynamic, bold approach while at the same time celebrates the company’s rich heritage and robust portfolio of characters,” stated John Rood, EVP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for DC Entertainment. “It was just a few months ago that Superman, Batman and many of our other Super Heroes were updated when we launched DC Comics – The New 52 and now it’s time to do the same for the company’s identity while remaining true to the power of storytelling which is still at the heart of DC Entertainment.”

DC Entertainment worked with Landor Associates, one of the world’s leading brand consulting and design firms, to develop an identity that creates a visual connection among the company, its three brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD and its vast array of properties as well as celebrates the power of the company’s stories and characters.  The design of the new DC Entertainment identity uses a “peel” effect – the D is strategically placed over the C with the upper right-hand portion of the D peeling back to unveil the hidden C – symbolizing the duality of the iconic characters that are present within DC Entertainment’s portfolio.

“It was our goal to capture DC Entertainment in a dynamic and provocative identity.  Our solution is a living expression which changes and adapts to the characters, story lines and the ways fans are consuming content,” explains Nicolas Aparicio, Executive Creative Director at Landor’s San Francisco office.  “The new identity is built for the digital age, and can easily be animated and customized to take full advantage of the interactivity offered across all media platforms.”

The new brand identity will come to life across all consumer touch points in order to create a clear and consistent message in support of DC Entertainment.  The new identity will begin to appear on comic books and graphic novels as well as new websites in March.  Consumers will also see the new identity rolled out over time on other DC Entertainment products from Warner Bros. including film, television, interactive games and merchandise.

“We believe our new brand identity will strongly resonate with our loyal fans who will want to proudly express their affinity for DC Entertainment and their passion for their favorite stories and characters, this new look allows them to easily do this. In addition we were excited to update our identity, it’s not often a company gets to revisit something as important as its brand and we took the opportunity to make sure it represented the multi-media business we set out to build with the formation of DC Entertainment,” said Amit Desai, SVP of Franchise Management for DC Entertainment.