!!!MARVEL EVOLUTION PREVIEW!!! Trouble with Clones

Welcome back to Evolution’s Peak!

Man.  I can’t even front, this was probably the toughest article I’ve had to write in a long time.  It’s for not lack of material…definitely NOT lack of material.  More so because I felt unworthy in trying to encapsulate the man, the myth, the legend that is Deadpool into a mere preview article!  I mean, textbooks could be written about this guy!  Granted, they’d be mental illness textbooks but textbooks just the same!  “Let’s not split hairs when we could be splitting skulls,” as my muse might say.

Deadpool easily is one of my top five favorite villains!  Although of late, he might not even qualify as a bad guy anymore after hanging around Cable for so long!  Heroism seems to be more contagious than Cooties these days.  But with the looks of a Chernobyl sunbather, the fighting prowess & healing factor of Wolverine and Spiderman’s sense of humor all swished around with an unhealthy dose of insanity we get THE most aggravating super villain in the Marvel Universe!  Leave it up to good ol’ Wade(Mr. Wilson if you’re nasty!) to be the living paradox because while being the most hated in the Marvel Universe, he happens to be one of the biggest fan favorites in our universe!  His twisted sense of humor and his 4th wall breaking quips keep us all coming back for more!  So now I’ll rub it in with the fact that not only do I get to preview perhaps the most coveted legend in the set but also one of his craziest cards!!

Thank You Mr. Seck!!  You make good cookies.  Happy Belated BTW!

Just like TBS mentioned in his Facebook article, Deadpool’s cards were each uniquely designed to somehow break the rules of the game and now we’re getting a glimpse of how “unique” Deadpool really is!  So far we’ve seen him tackle three of the biggest “in play” bonuses you can get; target immunity, readying effects and recovery effects.  Trouble with Clones kicks Deadpool’s game up a notch!  BAM!!!  Wadeyboy’s rule breaking rampage migrates to the recruit step as he gives himself the ability to lower his cost.  At the cost of KO’ing a Deapool you control, you get resource points to spend recruiting another Deadpool equal to the one you just KO’d!  WTF?!?!?  If Deadpool could take a piss on the VS rulebook, it would be soggy!  My brain is melting!  Melting…melting…melting…..

Annnnnnd that’s my cue!  Heeelllo Mouseketeers!  Do not attempt to adjust the vertical.  Do not attempt to adjust the horizontal.  I, Deadpool have taken control of this blog.  And boy, it couldn’t have been any sooner.  This SeanValen guy was torture!!  Bamboo shoots up your fingenails much?  And everyone says that I blather…HMMPF!  But have no fear, the prolific pugilist of puns, the jovial juggernaut of jokes, the merc with a mouth is here!!

So you wanna be Deadpool, huh?  I don’t blame ya.  He’s fly, he’s got swagger and he’s smooth with the ladies.  And these kickass powers they keep giving me don’t hurt.  Not like I’m a rabid fan of VS or anything(cuz I have much more important ummm….mercenary/assassin/badass stuff to do) but I have to toot my own horn on this card.  No one could ever get tired of me…my comedy is timeless.  But therein lies the Trouble with Clones, they create someone who does get tired of me…..ME!  This world’s only big enough for one Deadpool and I don’t need no steeekin’ clones to steal my shine, baby!  That’s why this is the perfect card for me…There Can Only Be One!!  I give you options that you’ve never had!  To boldly go where  no legend has gone before!

Let’s just say you wanna use this puppy as soon as you can…in turn 5.  The highest drop I’ve been at before that turn was a two(maybe you’ll see that change before the end of the week…TEASE!).  KO me and now you’ve got 2 extra resource points to spend on recruiting another me!!!  What could be better?  So now it’s about what you need from me.  Need to fill the field?  Sure!  Spend those extra two points to drop the cost of one of my 5 drops and you still got two more resource points to recruit/shift someone or something else.  Need to end the game?  No problem!  Take the 5 existing resource points with the two extra that Trouble with Clones gives ya and voila!  You can bring out my big bad, readying 7 drop self!!   I guess this is why they gave this version of me such low defense…with a little bit of help even a 5 drop could stun me.  Which is a tad insulting..i mean c’mon, just cuz I have a healing factor doesn’t mean I’m THAT inept at defending myself!  I did trounce Taskmaster with my hands and feet tied together!  No respect I tell ya, I get no respect! But I suppose they have to keep things balanced….DAMN YOU CURSED BALANCE!!  I shake my fist angrily at you!!  D’ah well.   I still get to whoop ass in turn 5 if you don’t get that little extra help.  If you recruited me on turn 2, you should still have a 3 and a 4 drop out there after paying the cost of Trouble with Clones.  That plus two attacks from me should be more than enough firepower to cause massive breakthru..even if you were Blind Al!!

Well ladies and jerks, I reckon it’s about time that I moesy on outta here.  So much killing, so little time.  Oh yeah, if you liked the art on my card, check out Patrick Zircher’s Art.  He’s done a lot for me in the past….and he makes my butt look good.  So until next time, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!  Which really gives you carte blanche cuz yesterday I was spraying cheerleaders hanging over a shark tank with puppy blood…GOOD TIMES! Toodles!

Homicidally Yours,

DeadPool

Coming Soon To VS…

… a man that needs no introduction but always gives us one anyway…….

Don’t everyone get their panties in a bunch…all will become clear on November 5th, 2008!  Mark your calendars!

Heroes Chapter 6: The Dying of the Light

Greetings and Salutations from the summit of Evolution’s Peak!  As the Sun slowly peeks it’s head above the horizon, the dawn of a new day also signals something much more sinister; The Dying of the Light.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I missed last week’s episode review and existence had no meaning for a while, but have no fear because your favourite neighbourhood blogger; Sean is here!!  Last week’s episode; Angels & Monsters, while still a good episode couldn’t maintain the head of steam that the first four episodes built up.  I’m ok with that though cuz the audience needed a chance to catch their collective breaths.  This slower episode also helped make this week’s episode that much more exciting by comparison.  The biggest reveals from that episode were that Nathan along with many others were given their powers by the formula and that Arthur, the Petrelli patriarch is still alive.

Segue to this week’s episode and we find out just how ominous Papa Petrelli’s return really is.  Quite a bit happens this week and the trend of having the chapter’s title being a symbolic metaphor for the happenings across all story lines still holds true.  This week, we are witness to the world getting a little bit darker.  Just before the show’s title screen, the first scene that made me jump from my seat was the death of Adam Munroe.  We got to see the fearless, 400 yr old, uber villain from Season 2 turn bitch and beg for his eternal life in his last moments.  Man, I didn’t realize how much I liked his character until I saw him turn to dust as 400 years of aging caught up with him.  I’m not sure why they decided to write Adam’s character out of the show but I have the strange feeling that it wasn’t because his character wasn’t necessary anymore.  I bet David Anders wanted more money and they were like “Oh yeah, you want more money?  How about we just kill you off and introduce a villain even worse than your character?”  Enter Arthur Petrelli.  It was always a huge question as to what, if any, powers did Arthur have.  Going off of the previous continuity from the online graphic novels, we knew that Arthur wasn’t born with any powers but seems to have been endowed with quite a drastic after-market one; the ability to completely steal a person’s ability thru tactile contact.  We also are shown that is able to keep multiple powers shown when he used telepathy to communicate with Adam.  No wonder everyone was on eggshells and broken glass around him!!  And now with Adam’s power, he too has become immortal.  It’s seeming like unless you have Spontaneous Regeneration these days, you ain’t saying shit!  Arthur stealing all of Peter’s powers at the end of the episode had me scooping my jaw off the ground!

Speaking of Peter, the fight scene with him and Sylar was another high point for me.  Not only was it cool to see the two brothers kick off but it was also a representation of the episode’s underlying theme.  We are slowly watching characters who were the epitome of good, having that bright flame diminish.  Another character who is treading down the same path is Mohinder Suresh.  Poor Mohinder has gone from trying help people with abilities to sticky gooping them to the walls in order to help bring his own unstable ability under control.  I am super interested to see how Tracey and Nathan will overcome him after freeing themselves.  Even Hiro,  the last bastion of good has forsaken his nature to go against the grain in order to become “badass.”  We are left to wonder how will his infiltration of Pinehearst affect his good nature and if the future he witnesses where Ando kills him, is really as we saw it.  Maybe it was not Ando who betrays Hiro over the formula but perhaps the other way around!

Lastly, I wanted to touch on the rise of Pinehearst and the swelling of their ranks.  During this episode we see Daphne doing a lot of the leg work(pun intended) for Pinehearst by rounding up recruits for their army.  Her list of people to contact definitely wasn’t a bunch of saints, it was all kilers and psychopaths.  Let’s see who composes the Pinehearst army so far:

Arthur Petrelli ~ Power Absorption

Maury Parkman ~ Mind Control

Knox ~ Superhuman Strength

Daphne~ Superhuman Speed

Flint ~ Pyrokinesis

Hiro ~ Time & Space Manipulation

Whoa.  Quite the team already!!  Considering that they also had Matt Parkman, Mohinder Suresh,”African Issac”( i died when Hiro called him that!) and Claire Bennet(sometime in the future) in their sights, it could be even more drastic!  Primatech Paper has got some serious competition.  I wonder if we’ll see an all out battle between both factions…maybe in the last episode since it’s titled “War.”

Al in all, this was an awesome episode and the rollercoaster season has just started!  As for me, I’m signing off until next week’s episode: Eris Quod Sum!  See back at Evolution’s Peak then!  PEACE!

Holla,

SV

Marvel Evolution Preview ~ Proteus, Earth-58163

Greetings from Evolution’s Peak….we’ve been expecting you.   We know that in this reality, it’s preview month for the new Vs set; Marvel Evolution.    And we also know that if you don’t get to see today’s previewed cards, it will all shatter into smithereens.  We can’t have that now can we?  Tsk, tsk, tsk…all in good time.

If you’ve been keeping up with this week’s other Exile previews you should have a good idea of how the new mechanic; Shift, works.  Basically, you get to spread the cost of recruiting Shift characters over several turns by spending resource points on Shift counters.  Once you have built up Shift counters & resources equal to the card’s cost, you can remove all counters and bring that character into play during your recruit step.  But what are the advantages to using a mechanic like this?  Just using this mechanic straight up allows you to under-recruit a turn and still bring out a character on curve…if you’ve been collecting enough Shift counters!  Now on it’s own, Shift isn’t necessarily the greatest thing since Press due to the fact that you’ve probably been under dropping any time you’ve spent resource points on shift counters.  It does however,  get you past some of the red tape that comes with recruiting a character.   Since they’re being brought into play from the Removed from Game zone, you don’t have to worry about any effects that might restrict your recruiting ability.  The real power of the Exiles is demonstrated when their team’s powers start adding shift counters to shifted characters thereby cutting the cost of bringing your team out to play!  The ultimate goal is to accumulate enough shift counters on a character so that they essentially only cost the 1 resource point it took to have them shifted in the first place!  You can then use your unspent resource points to bring out another character on curve or at least something close to it.  Imagine a turn five where you can bring your shifted 5 drop into play and then recruit another 5 drop…lights out for your opponent.  I feel this mechanic can be game-breaking but is balanced enough so that it’s still challenging to do so.  I love how thematic this mechanic is in order to embody the nature of the team.  Characters popping in out of nowhere is a norm for this team!

Well, now that we know the “what,” it’s time to enlighten y’all with the “who” and the “how.”  As interesting as it is, I won’t recount the Exile’s entire team history but if you want to see it..check here or here.  To me, the life of an Exile is quite a hollow existence balanced only by the satisfaction of knowing that their success means the continuation of an entire reality.  Yet still, the disembodiment & isolation one would feel from living outside of any reality and away from anyone they know while going on life threatening, often suicidal missions is NOT my idea of a vacation.  In an already chaotic life, things really didn’t start popping off until the beginning of the World Tour story Arc.  Our ragtag crew of alternate reality misfits had their fragile worlds rocked when they stumbled upon Kevin MacTaggart aka Proteus; a body hopping, reality altering serial killer….yay.  The real stinger is that whatever body Proteus happens to be inhabiting is drained away of its lifeforce thereby killing it.   Proteus gains knowledge of the Exile’s romps thru realities and has the team chase him through several including one of my favourite; Hulk’s Future Imperfect reality.  Proteus actually seeks to possess the body of the Maestro.

But things don’t go as planned and after killing the team’s leader at the time; Mimic(who actually also has a preview due out today!), Proteus ends up becoming trapped inside of Morph’s body.  This actually ends up working out for Proteus since Morph’s body seems to be immune to the decaying effects of being possessed by him.   It ends up working out for the Exiles after they’re able to brainwash him into thinking he really is Morph.

The card I preview today is of Proteus at a point before he killed Mimic and took over Morph’s body.

For those without the ability to see this image, he reads:

Proteus, Earth-51863

2 Drop

Exiles

No Flight or Range

2/3

Shift

Activate—> Put a shift counter on a shifted card you own.

“Mutant on the menu?”

MEV-154

In terms of stats, Proteus is pretty regular but his power is what really counts here.   At the cost of an activation, our evil friend gives out what essentially translates as a resource point towards bringing a character into play!  It’s tricks like these that will differentiate the Exiles from all other teams in VS existence.  With Proteus in turn two and Blink in turn three, you can get at two or maybe three shift counters for someone!  If you paid one resource point to shift your four drop in turn one, they’ll be shifting into play on turn four with four resources points left to spend!!  Ewwwww!  Two 4 drops in turn four is mighty gross, regardless of what their powers/stats are.  That smart cookie; Deranged Bear has figured out the formula for making a killing with Shift.  This is quoted from his blog; “

You can do something similar with Blink too: Suspend multiple copies of her so they trigger off each other. For example:

Turn 1: Shift Blink 1 (1 counter)
Turn 2: Shift Blink 2 (2 counters)
Turn 3: Shift three four drops each with one counter.
Turn 4: Shift another four drop, then play Blink 3.

Your Blink 3 comes into play then puts a counter on all your guys. This allows the Blink you played on the second turn to come into play for free, which puts another counter on all your other guys, which allows you to play Blink 3 for free, which puts the third set of counters on all your guys, which means all four guys can come into play for free.

You can generate a grand total of 10 resource points by turn four. Four four drops and a three drop is nineteen resource points. That’s nearly double your normal alotment! Factor in Common Bond, and it’s almost possible for you to get in for lethal.”

Granted, this strategy will leave your board rather defenseless but if you can weather the storm for those first three turns, you’ll be bringing the THUNDER in turn four!!  Let’s see if we can figure Proteus into this equation.

Turn 1: Shift your 4 drop out with 1 counter

Turn 2: Recruit Proteus and Activate for another counter on your shifted 4 drop

Turn 3: Recruit Blink and activate Proteus again for another counter on your shifted 4 drop

Turn 4: Bring your shifted 4 drop into play(b/c now they have four shift counters) and spend your four resource points as you wish!

I’m really excited about this team and it’s new mechanic.  This is the closest we’ve come to a resource acceleration based theme!  Just based on what we’ve seen so far, the Exiles are being heralded as the money team in this set.  Some cards have powers triggering off of characters being shifted out of play(Miguel O’Hara <> Spider-Man, Earth-6375), while others have powers that allow characters to be shifted into play early(Panoptichron).  I can’t wait to see how stuff like the Timebrokers, Jasper, Sabretooth and the Tallus will be represented!

Well, that’s all the time I have for now.  Look out for tomorrow’s previews which will feature the cutest X-Man from any reality and some legend support for our favourite purple Exile!  Thanks for stopping by Evolution’s Peak, don’t make it your last time!

Holla,

SV

!!Marvel Evolution Preview!!

Now that’s what I’m talking about!!

I Am Become Death

Welcome Back to Evolution’s Peak!

Oh, how like a snow globe this show has become!  At first it seems static and clearly defined but once you pick it up for closer investigation, a hundred swirling variables immediately begin to dance by, distorting the moment of clarity.  But like solving a Rubik’s Cube, the fun resides in the journey from chaos to order.  So let’s unbuckle from today’s roller coaster and evaluate what we’ve seen….

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a powerful episode on many levels, starting with it’s title!  Most names of chapters represent resonating themes during an episode, “I Am Become Death” focuses all it’s symbolic energy to highlight a resonating theme for the entire volume;  a hero’s fall from grace.   In this case, it’s mostly Peter’s downward spiral that we follow.  I genuinely applaud the writers and directors of the show for the way they have the audience walk the tightrope between love and hate for Peter.  We love him cuz he’s Peter, we spent all of season 1 & most of season 2 building an attachment to him but now we’re starting to hate him for the pain and anguish he’s caused in just the first four episodes of the season.  Yet, we still love him because we know he’s doing the unspeakable to prevent the unimaginable and it forces every viewer to ask themselves the question;  Do the ends justify the means?

Due to the fact that this episode is so heavily based in the future, it was jam packed with vital tidbits of info about upcoming plot twists.  One of the first tidbits came out when Future Peter first brought Present Peter four years into the future.  Future Peter gives Present Peter a brief rundown of what’s happened over the last four years.  The really interesting part there was that Future Peter explained that a Civil War of sorts broke out amongst those with abilities; those who were born with abilities against those who were given abilities via “The Formula.”

Next piece of info comes in the form of the scene where we find Claire, Knox and Daphne converging over Future Peter’s dead body.  It seems as though they’ve been on a mission to kill Future Peter which has been complicated by the arrival of Present Peter.  This mission was assigned to them as per Knox’s quote of “We’ve been given orders.  Kill Petrelli.”  I believe this is the precursor to our introduction to the new company in town; Pinehearst.  Pinehearst looks to be a rival to Primatech Paper and we’ve just seen a few of it’s agents.  As for it’s management structure, that remains to be seen.  I do believe that they are the ones who have hired Daphne to steal the Formula.  We also get a very brief glimpse of the company logo during Future Nathan’s speech regarding the loss of life after Sylar’s detonation in Costa Verde.

This leads to the next breadcrumb left by none other than the Boogeyman/Mr.Rogers…Future Sylar!  Now going by his given name of Gabriel, the scenes where he meets with Present Peter and later goes nuclear are instant classics.  It seems my premonition of Peter gaining access to Sylar’s power has become reality and so begins the downward spiral of Peter’s soul.  Sylar is super reluctant to show Peter how to use his ability as it comes with a cost; an insatiable and lethal hunger for more knowledge.  The clue from this scene is when Sylar explains the significance of keeping his old watch.  “It’s a scar.  A reminder of what I was…of what I can be.”  This clue will lead us the explanation of where Future Peter’s scar comes from…himself.  By the end of the episode we already get to see the hunger overcome Present Peter which forces him to kill his own brother Nathan, perhaps the person he cares most about on the show.  Even though it was a future version of Nathan, the fact that he could so easily kill someone so close to him is more than enough evidence that the level of control required to keep this new ability in check is so high that he needs a “scar” of his own.  I think he will cut himself across the face(using his telekinesis) to give himself something to remind him of what that ability can turn him into.  This also could explain why a scar wouldn’t heal even though he has Claire’s ability, he didn’t want it to heal!

The last tidbit comes not from the future but from the present where we find Tracey Strauss meeting with her “creator,” Dr. Zimmerman.  The info we learn here has much larger implications than just the origin of the triplets; Tracey, Nikki and Barbara.  We learn that Dr. Zimmerman was one of those responsible for the creation and application of the formula that will give people abilities.  He tested it on the orphaned triplets(could he be any more heartless??) and they all gained abilities via the DNA manipulation.  We know what powers Nikki and Tracey have but no word on what the third triplet(Barbara) has.  We do know that she has some close connection to Dr. Zimmerman as we get a glimpse of what seems to be a family photo of him with a Tracey/Nikki doppelganger.   The information this gives us is that this formula has been around for quite sometime and was most likely created by the Company.  My spoiler senses are tingling and telling me that the man we in the very last scene of this episode has a great deal to do with it.  I believe that Adam Munroe was used as the base subject for creating the formula and a great many characters with abilities are descendants of him…or at least have his DNA swimming around in their system!

All in all, this was a great episode!  It had it’s fun, it’s WOW factor and it’s cerebral moments.  It’s sad to say but I keep waiting for the show to plateau in it’s awesomeness but I have been pleasantly disappointed.   It keeps getting better and better!  Well, that’s all for now so until next week, we wait on pin and needles to see what happens next!  In the meantime, I’ll throw some chum into the shark tank to keep your brains active!  Are some spoilers I’ve found at ComicBook Resources via their weekly Behind the Eclipse article where viewer questions are answered by the show’s writers:

1) Episode 3×12 is Titled Our Father and will feature a scene with two characters traveling to the past to the moment on the “roof” when HRG was handed Claire.

2) No clones involved at all in the Niki/Tracy story line

3) Maury was in Level 5 when everyone escaped so stay tuned

4) By Episode 3×09 we will know about Peter, Nathan and Sylar’s powers and if they are some how related.

5) There might be differences in the various future time lines, but there is always one absolute “one fundamental problem”

6) Carlos Mendez, one of the Company founders is Isaac’s dad.

7) Not all of the founders kids are related, but there is one “genetic trend”

New webisodes and minisodes will return during the hiatus between the two volumes.

9) Peter will be able to use Jesse’s powers

10) Meredith is immune by all effects of fire

11) It is very possible that Dr. Strauss from the GN could have helped Dr. Zimmerman create Tracy

12) Echo from the Webisodes will appear in Episode 3×13 titled War.

13) Episode 3×08 titled “Villains” will show us Sylar’s first kill.

14) In Episode 3×10 Hiro shares a scene with The Turtle

15) Hiro can NOT stop time, just slows it down to such a point it seems like it is stopped.

16) Hiro’s mother’s powers will be revealed before the end of Volume 3.

Holla,

SV

Moral Shades of Grey

It’s a brave new world….but Aldous Huxley never could’ve imagined it like this!

Welcome Back Everyone,

The countdown has ended and new one has begun.  The sands in the hourglass are slowly running out on this dear planet of ours.  First it was the destruction of New York and .07% of the world’s population.  The it was 90% of the human race when the Shanti Virus threatened to be released.  Now we find the entire planet itself in peril at the hands of none other than ourselves(which is truer than we think!).  Ok, ok, I guess I should put out my spolier warning now before I ruin the first three episodes for those who haven’t seen them yet…

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!   SPOILER ALERT!!!!

 

The season starts off in Frankenstein style with an angry mob complete with torches and pitchforks chasing Future Peter down a street.  Quickly ducking into a nearby warehouse to escape but ends up jumping from the frying pan into the fire as a future version of Claire who was waiting for him, holds him at gunpoint.  Before escaping to the present, the conversation they have gives us the slightest of inklings as to what has become of Earth four years into the future.  It seems that the world has become a dark, dark place where thousands and maybe millions of people have abilities but are feared and hunted like animals.  But it’s not without reason since that light we think we see at the end of the tunnel is really the Earth’s core pushing it’s way to the surface!!  It seems that everyone having an ability is not the greatest thing that could’ve happened.  Future Peter, having full control of Hiro’s power, has taken on the mantle of saving our planet and hopefully our species by what looks to be any means necessary!  Our first glimpse at the underlying theme of this volume; every hero can be a villainous and every villain can be heroic…hence my title, Moral Shades of Grey.

I think everyone had extremely high expectations for this first episode considering how long we’ve all been waiting.  With that said, all expectations were not only met but far surpassed in my view.  It might be bold to say so, but I think that The Second Coming was better than any single episode from Season 1 and almost better than all of Season 2 put together!!  Any of the die hard fans from Season 1 who were put on the fence by the fuckery of Season 2 are now fully re-buckled in on the bandwagon and any of the fans who fell off during Season 2 are now running to get back on.   I’d like to think that in the next 13 chapters(which happens to be the length of this volume), we’re going to see Heroes like we’ve never seen it before.  While the writer’s strike did throw a huge monkey wrench into the gears, they’ve still had enough time to spiff up these episodes more than they ever have and probably ever will again.  A small hint of what’s to come was shown to us during the scene where Hiro and Daphne Millbrook(our new villainous speedster) meet.  The special effects depicting her ability to move to incredible velocity couldn’t have been done better.  I knew what was coming due to my craving for spoiler fixes and I was STILL blown away!  With the exception of the Maya/Mohinder scenes, this episode was nearly flawless.  We actually are going to be seeing many characters paired together for what seems to be symbolic representation of the struggle between good & evil that rages inside everyone.  Currently the pairs are; Maya & Mohinder, Sylar & Noah Bennett, Nathan & Tracey Strauss(aka Niki Sanders), Parkman & Rafiki(that’s what I’ll call the African precog for now…), Hiro & Daphne, and finally Peter & Peter! 

Sorry, it’s hard not to jump around to all these different storylines so I have to try and keep things linear for y’all.  In fact, I’m probably going to avoid doing an episode synopsis because if you haven’t seen Chapter 1, 2 & 3,  you shouldn’t even be here reading this!  What I will do is give you some of my favourite scenes and my theories on how the show will evolve.  So here are my top five moments from The Second Coming,  The Butterfly Effect and One of Us, One of Them:

5. Sylar Brain-Raping Claire

Wow.  Ummmm…wow.  The whole goal of Season 1(Save the Cheerleader, Save the World) is undone in the first episode of Season 3.  The real test of how good an episode is for me can be defined by how many times I jump out of my seat with excitement because of some plot twist or drastic plot reveal.  When Claire opened that to see Sylar standing there had me doing laps around the room!  Granted, the closet door keeping Sylar at bay from Claire was a bit silly but I immediately forgave that once we got see Claire sprawled out on her dining room table.  This scene answered a couple of key questions for everyone; Could Claire survive a Sylar encounter? and How exactly does Sylar take people’s powers?  Technically, I guess Claire could not survive Sylar fingering her brain because she would not have regenerated without him replacing that top portion of her head.  Though she was able to talk to him during his procedure, once he finished she did die.  This is contradicted by Sylar himself when he tells Claire “You are different than all the others, Claire.  You’re special.  To be honest, I couldn’t kill you if I tried.  You can NEVER die, Claire….and I guess now, neither can I.”  I imagine he meant that he could keep her “dead” by interrupting that part of her brain but the instant it was restored, she would return to life.  We also got to see how Sylar was able to take abilities all this time.  But it really couldn’t have made sense without Mohinder’s discovery of where everyone’s powers come from; the adrenal gland.  We know that Sylar’s ability is Intuitive Comprehension(the ability to understand anything in an instant) and once he is able to see how the brain fires its synapses to the adrenal gland, he is able to mimic that by using his understanding of how the brain itself works.  This is further proven by the fact that Mohinder is able to give anyone powers, since we all have an adrenal gland.

 

4. Future Peter Revealing Himself

This one was a big shocker to me, especially since a non-fanatic of Heroes friend who was watching the episode with me guessed this reveal while my theory ended up being way out in left field!  Future Peter is setting the stage for his big 180 degree turn from good to evil.  However you still feel a tinge of sympathy for his character in knowing that the only reason he’s doing any of the despicable things he’s done is for a brighter future.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions and Future Peter seems to taking the express bus.   Seeing the most powerful of all those with abilities turn ruthless and possibly evil is everyone’s worst nightmare.  This is only going to be counteracted by Sylar’s turn from evil to good which I predict with a high percentage of probability.  I wondered how much could they do plot-wise with an unstoppable, uber-powerful villain that could only be defeated if literally everyone teamed up and ganged up on him…it was an obvious dead-end for Zachary Quinto’s character.  But now I’ve had the epiphany that he was given such power because he’ll need it to survive the onlslaught of Level 5 escapees.  The scene with Future Peter stopping time in during the bank heist was great!  I can only imagine at the countless powers he has considering the future he comes from is one where everyone and their granny has an ability.  The real creepy part is thinking about if Future Peter has somehow gotten control of Sylar’s actual power of Intuitive Comprehension(which technically he’s had since Homecoming in Season 1).  This would mean that he has a full understanding of every power he has, therefore making him stronger than anyone on the planet!  No one could contest him at that point…not Sylar, not Parkman not even himself!!  Oooooh, I just got the willies!

 

3. Hiro vs Daphne

 This looks to be the most fun of all the pairings we’re destined to see this volume as the reparte between hero and arch-nemesis keeps things light.  Not to mention that in almost every scene these two have together is laden with special effects!  I think Hiro having a nemesis that’s not a power-hungry megalomaniac gives Masi Oka a chance to really play with his comedic side.  Even the nature of Daphne’s power being able to counteract Hiro’s adds another level of irony in the fact that while Hiro’s power doesn’t really work on Daphne, her powers don’t give her an advantage over Hiro either!  I loved the scene in episode 3 when the Hatian had both of them depowered and they didn’t even know it which actually defines the Hatian’s powers a little more.  He was able to neutralize them without knowing they were there and this leads to believe that his Power Neutralization ability functions somewhat like a field.  Better for since he doesn’t really have to concentrate to knock out another’s power, all he needs is to be conscious.  There was a definite pop from me when Ando clobbered the Hatian to steal the briefcase.  Slapstick abound!  It even goes as far as the movie playing while the briefcase exchange is going down happens to be a Buster Keaton flick!  The crazy part is that hidden amongst all the comedy in this storyline are the answers that will lead us to this volume’s true outcome.   What does the “formula” do?  How did Kaito become it’s guardian?  Who hired Daphne to steal the formula?  How is Angela involved?  How does the formula lead to the Earth’s destruction??   

 

2. The Emmergence of Knox

 This was one of the things I knew about long before season 3 went on the air and I’ve been waiting ever since.  Jamie Hector who plays Knox was one of my favourite characters in an HBO series called The Wire.  Those who know about him, know him as Marlowe Stansfield, the main antagonist for the show’s final two seasons.  And if the writers make Knox anything like Marlowe, then we’re in for a intimate look at pure evil.  While all the villains we’ve seen have an agenda or at least some method to their madness, we’re yet to see someone who is evil simply because they like it.  It was smart to have Knox’s power based on fear since it gives him a built in character driver to do bad things.  To make a Spiderman analogy, Knox will a Carnage to Sylar’s Venom.  While Sylar is no doubt a self-proclaimed killer, he still has some form of a twisted moral code.  For Knox, I think this will be completly absent and he’ll be in “kill at will” mode much like he was when he killed his own teammate, The German Magneto during the bank heist!  I’m extra glad that his lifespan on the show will be longer than two episodes since it’s already been foretold he will join forces with REAL badguy dreamteam(Adam Monroe, Tracey Strauss and Maury Parkman) in Angela’s grim vision of everyone’s future.   We also get hints of a history between Knox and Bennett during their encounter at the bank.   I’m really anxious to see Jamie Hector take this character and run with it!

 

1. The Sylar, Bennett, Angela Triangle 

 I’m still reeling from CRAZY reveal in episode 3 last nite!  Sylar is really Angela’s son?!?!?  WTF?!?! And on top of that, she’s feeding him powers?!?  Poor, poor Bennett, what have you landed yourself into?  Stuck holding the leash of a certified monster and trying to contain him with just your wits, is what.  Sylar’s current array of abilities are quickly approaching the level of lethality they were at before his de-powering.  As of episode 3, he has his own power, Telekinesis, Spontaneous Regeneration, Matter Transmutation(turning stuff to gold), Pyschometry(the ability to obtain info about an indvidual by simply touching an item they touched) and Sound Manipulation.  While he has lost a great deal of offensive power(Ted’s power and Zane Taylor’s power), he has more than made up for it defensively by acquiring Claire’s ability.  This storyline could be the opposite to the Star Wars storyline for Anakin Sykwalker.  Instead of someone purely good turning to ultimate evil, we see ultimate evil find it’s way to pure good. Who will get to who first, Bennett or Sylar?  How long will Angela continue to feed Sylar?  Will Sylar turn good? All these are questions dying to be answered!

 

Below I was also able to find the episode titles for the chapters in Volume Three:

301. The Second Coming
302. The Butterfly Effect
303. One of Us, One of Them
304. I Am Become Death
305. Angels and Monsters
306. Dying of the Light
307. Eris Quod Sum
308. Villains
309. It’s Coming
310. The Eclipse Part 1
311. The Eclipse Part 2
312. Our Father
313. War

Hope y’all enjoyed my review of the last three episodes at least a fraction as much as I enjoyed the episodes themselves!  To be honest, I think they could’ve just replayed these chapters over and over and it would’ve been better than what we saw in all of  Season 2! 

Check back for more spoilers, theories and reviews! 

 

Holla,

SV

The DC Universe Awards

Best Team Theme: Emerald Enemies ~ The pay Willpower theme was a stroke of genius!

Most Thematic Card:  Countdown ~ While the Countdown series wasn’t the best ever, this card embodies it excellently!

Best 1 Drop:  Mr. Mind ~ While his powers don’t really kick in until the late in the game, any 1 drop that can win you the game is the shit!

Best 2 Drop:  Amazing Man ~ Being able to copy anyone’s powers with a mere discard is so great that it’s almost unbalanced but since it can only happen while he’s in combat it keeps him fair.

Best 3 Drop:  Damage, Grant Emerson ~ This was a really tough one since there was an overabundance of really good 3 Drops.  Damage won out b/c he can gain counters, replace resources and he was once used to recreate the Big Bang(which is just too cool!)

Best 4 Drop:  Batman, Always Prepared ~ This was easy.  Bruce introduces a completely new concept to the game!  Runners up were Bedovian from Anti-Matter and Eobard Thawne<>Zoom from The Rogues.

Best 5 Drop:  Sinestro, Founder of the Sinestro Corps ~ The super-legend of the set finally makes his appearance at the awards ceremony.  Gaining endurance equal to his willpower when stunned paired with his leader power, make him quite the obstacle for opponents!

Best 6 Drop:  Captain Cold, Rogue Leader ~ Mr. Snart gets the nod here b/c of his innate power of boosting defense and his leader power makes him effective both on & off init!

Best 7 Drop:  Wally West<>The Flash ~ While having a Flash to discard might be tricky with JLA, having one while playing Speed Force isn’t an issue at all.  His power can throw several monkey-wrenches into an opponent’s attack step! 

Best 8 Drop:  Sodam Yat<>Ion ~ Our Daxamite hero climbs his way to the top of the heap in this category.  Drawing cards for you and being able to put counters on himself can grow him to immense proportions making him the best game-ender in the set!

Best Location:  Iron Heights ~ This location gives the gift of putting you into a Win/Win situation!  You get a character card for 2 endurance or you gain 2 endurance.  Close runner up was The Speed Force.

Best Equipment:  Cosmic Treadmill ~ While this equipment can only be put onto a Speed Force character, with their pile of readying effects, the Cosmic Treadmill can net you two or more cards per turn!  Sick!

Best Team-Stamped Plot Twist:  Father Figures ~ This is the JSA’s own personal Epic Battles without giving your opponent the same advantages!  This card being a common also boosts it’s value and being able to be used on both offense and defense coronates it as Best Team-Stamped PT!!

Best Legend Support:  Ancient Weakness ~ Sinestro and his super legend ass is handing out KEGS of whoop ass with the amount of support he has!  Out of it all, I still am partial to this card…you just can’t beat a free, out of combat stun!

Best Generic Plot Twist:  One Year Later ~ I was actually lucky enough to be able to preview this card and so I relished in the fact that I knew how awesome this cards was before anyone else!  NYAH NYAH NYAH!  A minor change was made after I previewed in that a DC card is needed to discard as opposed to just any card.  Thematically it makes more sense and also limits it a bit better.  So all those Marvel stall decks who wanna jump to turn 8 will have to start packing some DC generic stuff!

Best Artwork:  Thy Kingdom Come ~ The polar opposite of One Year Later, Thy Kingdom Come forces everyone to KO a resource!  This was an easy choice for Best Artwork b/c the legendary Alex Ross’ legendary work is made from the stuff of legend!

Worst Artwork:  Sun-Eater ~ The art on this card is such a waste of space, enough so to say that this character did not even need to be included.  Someone or something else could’ve made much better use here besides a giant black ripple.  The dialog bubble didn’t help either.

  

The Junk Rare:  Zamaron ~ This is card you’d cringe to see if these could be opened in packs. A so-so activated legend effect that also requires an exhaust from the legend is far from great.  The fact that the legend it’s based only shows up at two different drops is the extra salt in the wound.

  

Most Broken Card: Mr. Mind ~ Yes! He makes a second appearance at our awards ceremony!  While he is still vulnerable to a multitude of stun/KO effects due his cost, being able to bring him and up to another 7 drop out on turn 8 is broken to me.  Potentially you could have two 7’s and 21/21 8 drop in turn eight?!?  And a simple Cloak of Nabu would protect him from most damaging effects.

The Money Common:  Fighting Through Pain ~ While this card is balanced with a cost of potentially having an opponent remove a card from your hand, proper preparation can drop this down to just a simple reveal!  Recovering in the combat phase has never been so easy!  The team who could abuse this off the top of my head is Avengers Rally decks b/c you should have a pile of characters in your hand and recovering leaders can turn the tide in a turn!

The Money Uncommon:  Jay Garrick<>The Flash ~ The nightmare 6 drop.  Whoa.  And he can exhaust for one of the JSA’s many tricks after wiping the board clean?!?  Whoa.

The Money Rare:  For this category, I’ll give the nominees; Batman, Always Prepared~DCU-304……Lightning Quick~DCU-201……Ancient Weakness~DCU-077…..One Year Later~DCU-322!  And the award goes to……….Ancient Weakness!!!!   The out of combat stun coupled with the ability to boost Sinestro’s willpower make using his power to go up the curve to ri-cock-ulous to ignore!  Sinestro + Ancient Power = Win.

Best Tits:  I HAD to give the nominees for this one too!  The nominees are;

And the winner is…….Jill Pearlman<>Star Sapphire!  PowerGirl has been de-throned!!

 

Thanks for coming out everyone!  Look for more posts as we near the season premiere of Heroes!!

One Year Later…

Well, well, well….here we are at the end of the roller coaster ride we called the DCU previews.  And what a ride it was!  An incredible amount of work and effort was put into the creation of this set and it definitely showed during the previews we’ve all seen!  I’d like to say thanks to all those involved in it’s creation and for those who gave me an opportunity to be a part of the whole thing.  Congrats on a truely amazing body of work!!  So before I show you my last preview(yes, you’ll have to wait),  I thought I’d give y’all my top 5 previews.

5. Ancient Weakness

 Of all the SInestro legend cards, this one impressed me the most!  Out of combat stuns = Pure Awesomeness!

4. Lantern of Earth

 I’m a huge Hal Jordan fan and this ongoing PT makes a Hal Jordan legend deck pop off!

3. Beware My Power

 Beware My Power fits perfectly with the GL Stall theme and puts itself a shelf higher than Giftwrapped since you can boost Jordan’s willpower!

2.Black Flash, Death

 Having access to the Flash suite of cards along with his other powers makes Black Flash worthy of stalling enough to get to him!

1. The Speed Force

 This location is off the hinges!  By allowing a Flash to remove people from the game, it gives opponents less people to fend away their readying effects with.  I also just love how they matched the theme of this card to it’s artwork.

 

Pretty great stuff so far!  I can’t wait to see what other goodies they have lined up for us when the set drops.  With that being said, my final preview is easily my favourite of those given to me.  One of the effects that I try hardest to break in my deck building exploits is that of resource acceleration.  This one screams “Break Me!” harder than Angelina Jolie in a thong on a waterbed!

GREAT CAESAR’S GHOST!!  This card not only has an amazing effect, great balance and breath taking artwork but also fits the theme of event it is based on perfectly!  I’m not even going to try and give y’all background on the One Year Later event cuz I’d be spending the rest of the article doing so.  The Cliff’s Notes for Dummies version is that after the events of Infinite Crisis, all DC Comics titles jumped ahead one year in their new continuity and in a lot of cases things were VERY, VERY different for some of our favourite heroes.  The missing events that led up to One Year Later were documented in real time during the series known as 52.   The Bible of the Comic Challenged A.K.A. Wikipedia will provide you with a good list of important things that happened during One Year Later, you can check it here.  The one thing I will speak to is what happened to Green Arrow during this period since he graces the artwork on this card. 

We find our good friend, Ollie having amassed a huge fortune, elected as the new mayor of Star City fighting crime on the streets and through the system.  After battling Deathstroke(who wanted a rematch after Green Arrow plunged an arrow into his eye during Identity Crisis) and the Red Hood(who was the newly revived Jason Todd), political scandal ended up being Ollie’s Achilles Heel.  It was publicized that he was secretly funding the Outsiders, who were widely seen as terrorists and a recall election was called.  Amidst the scandal and recall election, Green Arrow reconnects with his old flame Black Canary.  They both foil another attempt by Deathstroke to assassinate Green Arrow and the series ended with Green Arrow proposing to Black Canary.

As for the card itself, it’s effect allows you to jump from going into turn 7 to turn 8 instead!  For any stall deck or a team with a killer 8 drop, this card gets you there one turn quicker!  The fact that it’s generic means that it’s awesome power is accessible to anyone!  Teams I can forsee maximizing this card’s potential are ones like; Heralds of Galactus, Green Lanterns, Doom and even Darkseid’s Elite.  At first glance, I thought this card was broken to begin with, but upon further review I saw balance in the form of it’s threshold cost and play restrictions.  For most teams, the threshold cost keeps this card from allowing the game to get too far ahead of itself.  Playing it only during the recovery phase keeps the Thunderbolts and their combat phase resource acceleration tricks from giving them the ability to use it up to two turns earlier(with Katrina Luisa Van Horne <> Amazon & Thunderbolts Mountain).  And finally the once per game clause keeps everyone honest.

Well, that’s all for now from your friendly neighbourhood SeanValen!  I hope that all of you don’t forget me and my little blog over here at Evolution’s Peak.  You’ll definitely hear more from me once the entire DCU set drops.  Also, Season 3 of Heroes is one month away and I’ll be posting weekly reviews, spoilers and theories for the show.  On top of that, I will be attending some of my first comic conventions this year so you’ll get the inside scoop/pics from me on those.  FanExpo is this weekend in Toronto and  and ComicCon Toronto is in November! 

So please stick with me if you like my ramblings about all the geeky things that talking about would’ve gotten you shoved into a locker in highschool!    If you happen to be shoved into a locker right now, PM me so I can call your school’s janitor and can get you out.  Remember, one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it!  Until next time…..

 

Holla at cha boy,

SeanValen

NBC Heroes Countdown

Heroes Countdown