I loved the first Badass book by Ben Thompson so much that I lost count on the number of times I’ve read it from cover to cover. The appeal was from reading about these real life heroes, some of them unsung or have been relegated to back pages of history, getting described in modern, badass prose allowing them back into the limelight.

So I guess that the challenge here in the latest Badass book, The Birth of a Legend featuring legendary mythical, religious and even on-screen or on-paper fictional characters would be to out-badass-describe what seems to be figures who are already known (and some are worshipped by many) for their badassesry in the first place.

Take for example, Darth Vader. The dude is certifiable badass and the fact that he force chokes people through video conferencing makes it very hard to top in terms of writing an even more badass description of the dark cowled one of the Sith.

Mythological figures seem to dominate the book and it simply shows that IMHO Mr. Thompson is dipping too much in the same pool for ideas. I would have prefer see diversity or how about more TV/Movie characters? Having said that, The Birth of a Legend is still an entertaining book filled with badass characters, and those who are fans of the author’s bombastic work should get it. For those who are new to the art of badassesry, you should get the first book as well.

An unedited, unabridged review copy of badass was provided by HarperCollins to Nine Over Ten 9/10 for the purpose of this review. Badass: The Birth of a Legend is out now, check it out over here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IWR38S?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1

Finally the full trailer for Captain America is out on the Internet, and you know what I think? Plain and simple: it’s awesome! Marvel is tying up their silver-screened superheroes much like what they did for the Ultimates line of comics. Even Howard Stark (I assume), father of Tony Stark has a hand in the creation of Captain America. Is that also the same supersoldier serum given to Blonsky in The Incredible Hulk movie?

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty stoked about this movie now. Check out the full trailer above. July 2011 couldn’t come soon enough.

I received a letter from a reader the other day regarding my comic book reviews and he recommended the relaunched Xombi title by DC Comics. I’m not familiar with the title, but if you are reading this Rick, I’m glad I took your word for it.

The Xombi in question is David Kim a medical researcher who gotten infected by nanites which turned him into a Xombi, virtually immortal and in his own words “some sort of immortal weirdness magnet”. The book couples the stuff that Hellboy comics (which are my favourite) are made of such as fantasy and urban legends with an underlying trend to more than willingly make fun of itself.

Ever heard of  superpowered nuns that go by names such as “Nun of above” and “Nun the less”? and books that can infect you with semi-colon cancer? Xombi mixes such deadpanned humour and puns that first time readers like me would find really funny, engaging and wanting for more. John Rozum should be given an award or two if he hasn’t got some already.

Xombi #1 ends with a cliffhanger and I can’t wait for Xombi #2. Xombi #1 should be at your local comics book store now. Do check it out. And Rick, thanks for the recommendation man.

Talk about a video game which looked to have been inspired by a comic book (but actually not) finally having its very own comic book series. If you have not guessed it already, it’s inFAMOUS. The story, though being a mix, disjointed bag that doesn’t exactly follow the video game (and I doubt it will win any new fans who had not played the game in the first place), it’s intriguing enough to spark my curiousity.

Published by DC Comics, this is a 6 issue series and I’m guessing all things will lead up to inFAMOUS 2. I for one have been looking forward to that game, afterall inFAMOUS is one of my favourite games of all time.

I’m starting to really warm up to Marvel’s new storyline involving the X-Men, titled Age of X (AoX for short). It’s basically an alternate (well it looks like one, like Age of Apocalypse, but one interview with the writer says it isn’t) reality whereby mutants are almost extinct, and the few survivors bandy together as the X-Men under Magneto’s leadership and are based in “Fortress X”.

Although most of the characters share the same characteristics as X-Men in current continuity, events in the Age of X have altered them quite significantly. For example, Scott Summers (Cyclops in current continuity) is a tortured mutant forced to kill his own brother and other mutants, and now goes by the name Basilisk. Wolverine is simply known as Logan, having lost his healing factor, popping his claws will kill him.

The series raises plenty of questions. Like how did the mutants get to that state of near extinction and what are their backstories, and after the events of Age of X # 2 (New Mutants #22), why is Professor X in lock down? According to Wikipedia, the Age of X storyline will span the following comic books:

• Age of X: Alpha
• X-Men: Legacy #245-247
• New Mutants #22-24
• Age Of X: Universe #01-02

I can’t wait for the rest to come out. At least it seems to have more potential compared to the tepid Brightest Day series from DC Comics.

It’s pretty interesting to see what’s going on with Marvel Comics’ storyline these days. Johnny Storm is dead, and Spiderman is his replacement in the newly renamed Future Foundation (previously known as Fantastic Four). Now we’ve got VENOM as a viable supersoldier replacement to Captain America (it’s even dubbed as Project Rebirth 2.0!). And who is the host? None other than Flash Thompson.

It looks like an interesting diversion and already 2 issues into his debut, he has let the alien symbiote take over once, leading to one bad guy (yes, Venom’s the good guy now) losing his arm to some..er…chewing action. It will be pretty interesting to see how this goes about as Venom is getting his own book in March 2011.

I started off reading John Ajvide Lindqvist with Let The Right One In. That was a creepy little fright fest but one thing is for sure, both that book and his earlier work, Handling The Undead, have a certain theme: a deep exploration of the human nature when faced with the supernatural.

While I would leave Let The Right One In for another review, Handling The Undead goes about asking the question on what happens when your loved ones return from the dead, only for you to find that they are shells of their former selves. How would you handle that? The book describes the experience of doing so from the view point of several key characters, all of which are believably portrayed and fleshed out.

Lindqvist’s prose makes it very easy to imagine the events and scenes transcribed in the book. It’s an effective way to pull the reader in and at times very scary, especially on how the dead and living affect each other.  Although I found the book an enjoyable, if not simple read, I wouldn’t spoil it for you because at the end of the day, the book turns out to be a poignant and bittersweet affair.

Do check it out at  local bookstore near you. Otherwise, there’s always Amazon.

Like every other good cyborg (sic), Darth Vader undergoes maintenance from time to time. This isn’t really shown clearly in the movies, but here’s a scene taken from a new comic book series titled Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command. Set between Episodes III and IV, it depicts everyone’s favourite deep breathing, force wielding cyborg as he goes on a search and rescue mission of sorts with the 501st Legion, but not before getting a rather painful/embarrassing looking maintenance process.

Kinda reminds me of the chopped up RoboCop (another beloved cyborg, a robot cop haunted by his past memories of being a human being) from RoboCop 2, don’t you think? As for the comic book, I can say that the Force is strong in this one.

Superman: Red Son is probably one of the more interesting Superman stories that I’ve read. An Elseworld story (meaning that it’s  a re-imagining of the character in somewhat fantastical situations…as if comics are not fantastical at the first place), it tells the story of what if Superman grew up as a communist superhero instead of an all-American boy after the plane carrying him crashes somewhere in the Ukraine, instead of Kansas.

Superman grows up to assume control of the Soviet Union and forms a utopia, with the rest of the world falling in line with the exception of the United States. Lex Luthor is shown here as a scientist obsessed with destroying Superman and forms LuthorCorp as a result. Batman has a small role in this as well, taking the fight against Superman but commits suicide to avoid capture.

For fans, Red Son  has plenty of other surprises as well. The end battle even features a Green Lantern Marine Corps. LOL. At the end of it all, Red Son presents a crazy mind-bomb with a “predestination paradox” (somewhat like in the Terminator, sending John Connor back in time) that while crazy, proofs to be a satisfying end to the story.

By the way, if you are looking for an app to read comics on the go, check out Comic Zeal  Comic Reader for the iPhone.  It’s a little expensive at USD 6, but definitely worth the money (rated 4 1/2 stars on the App St0re). Check it out over here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic-zeal-comic-reader-mini/id288016881?mt=8

Back when I was a kid, my dad used to get me issues of Quest magazine, a partworks magazine collection about science published by Marshall Cavendish. If you are unfamiliar with the term partworks, it basically means a written publication, released as a series of planned magazine-like issues over time. In the case of Quest, each issue can be separated into separate topics and stored inside binders with colour coded sections. The complete collection, consisting of 3 binders of collected issues, is somewhat like an encyclopedia on science.

I noticed a new partworks collection yesterday at the local Borders, called the DC Comics’ Super Hero Collection. It sounds tacky and while it comes with the pre-requisite magazine (and the binder is coming in Issue 2….I think), each issue comes with a hand-painted, lead-cast collector’s edition figurine of the featured superhero! In the case of Issue 1, which is on the newsstands now, the featured superhero none other than my favourite, Batman.

The magazine portions details the character, the greatest Batman stories, the supporting characters and the genesis of the idea in creating Batman, it’s nothing much if you have something like The Essential Batman Encyclopedia (which I do, having bought it for a song), but if you don’t it’s an OK primer to the Dark Knight. The star of the issue is definitely the figurine. I’m keeping in in-box (took off the shrink-wrapped, but never gone to the business of setting the little guy free from his plastic confines), and I think it’s pretty well worth the money.

DC Comics’ Super Hero Collection is a bi-weekly release. The first issue is now at an introductory price of RM 19.90, subsequent issues will have a price tag of RM 29.90.  If you were to ask me, I would say the magazine is worth buying for the figurine alone. Looks like I’ve to add this to the budget, in addition to the other two magazines that I buy on a regular basis, EDGE and Retro Gamer.