Yesterday in the Nerd Verse… Jan 04, 2015

Yesterday the sport’s world lost a friend.  Stuart Scott passed away at age 49.  Watch this amazing tribute to his life here.  Source: ESPN

The Talking Dead – your favorite talk show – won’t be on at Sundays at 8pm anymore.  But don’t fret, it will be moving to the 9pm slot, in order to give Better Call Saul the 8pm slot.  Things could be worse. Source: Twitter.

The Hobbit is still holding onto the Number 1 spot in the box office with 220.77 million made.  Haven’t seen it? May be a good time now that people have to work again after the holidays.  Source: Fandango

Hipsters went crazy when the Jurassic World preview came out last year.  Now they will have to watch the Super Bowl to see a super-sized trailer.  They may actually care about the game, too.  Source: ABC News

A fan made LEGO movie is making the rounds.  Jordan Haro created his very own Batman vs. Superman movie, and let me tell you, it is hilarious.  Source: BrickFlix

DC Collectibles will be releasing a line of Li’l Gotham figures, based on the designs of Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs.  It only makes since that The Joker and Harley Quinn are the best of this series. Source: GeekDad

 

Best of 2014: Collectibles

Another year is in the books, and we here at Hush Comics couldn’t pass at the chance to rank our favorites of this year’s releases in all types of mediums. Some of the winners will surprise you; heck, some of the results surprised  us. The results are completely subjective, and therefore were chosen with infallible logic. We would love to hear your opinions on what we have chosen, or if you thought we missed anything. This should be a fun review before we gear up for 2015.

hush best of 2014
Click on the link to take you to the “Best of 2014” homepage.

 

 

Batman Day – Best Collectibles

DC Comics has dubbed today Batman Day. The Dark Knight has been fighting crime and serving justice for his 75th year since the 1939 debut of Detective Comics #27. Batman has been a big part of our lives, and was responsible for making us into the comic book fanatics we are today, whether it be through comic books and toys or television and movies. To show our appreciation for the man, the myth and the legend, we have compiled a plethora of Bat-themed lists. We hope that we can inspire you to read more about Batman and his legacy, or even give us some feedback if you agree or disagree with the lists. Sound off below! And click on the picture below to take you to all of our Batman Day articles.

 

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Top 20 Collectibles

Not only does Batman have the best gadgets, but he also is the driving force behind the best collection of action figures, statues and replicas out. Whether it’s an affordable item that you add to your display case or just something to ogle at because nobody in their right mind would spend money on it, there are some great collectibles out there. There was absolutely no way to complete this list without missing a fair share of great items, so here are 20 of what I consider the coolest collectibles to add to your collection. Are there any toys, replicas or eye that I’m missing? Let me know in the comments below.

 

20.) The Dark Knight Rises Bane vs. Batman Statue

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19.) Tim Burton’s Batman Mime Joker

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18.) New52 Box Set of Court of Owls and Death of the Family

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17.) Sideshow Collectibles Harley Quinn statue

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16.) Batman Hush Action Figure – DC Artist Signature Series

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15.) Life-size Batman Statue

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14.) The Dark Knight Rises Cowl BD Set

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13.) Lifesize Bat-Signal

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12.) Capullo Designer Series Figures

 

 

11.) Harley Quinn-Joker Mad Love Two-Pack

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10.) Eagle Moss Batman Chess Set

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9.) Green Lantern Batman

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8.) Arkham City Riddler Trophy

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7.) Kotobukiya ART FX+ Statue

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6.) Batman vs. Killer Croc Statue

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5.) Nightwing Arsenal Set from Arkham City

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4.) Batman vs. Superman: The Dark Knight Returns statue

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3.) Batman: A Call to Arms from The Dark Knight Returns

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2.) Batman and Catwoman: Kissing the Knight Statue

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1.) Batman: Black and White Statues

October Comics and Collectibles Preview

At Hush Comics, we will be starting a new monthly piece reflecting on Diamond Comics Distributors’ monthly PREVIEWS issue. For those not in the know, PREVIEWS is a monthly magazine (almanac-sized each month) that shows you all the ways that you could lose your money through comics, collectibles and games. With the thousands of items to throw money at, we figure we’d make it a little simpler and suggest five comics and five collectibles that will definitely be on our shelves when they are released.

Comics & Books

1.) Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett is one of the coolest piece of Star Wars memorabilia I’ve seen in a while. At only $60 and releasing October 29th, Bounty Hunter Code is part collectible, part book, but all awesome. To unlock the goodies inside, you actually have to insert your bounty hunter data card into the slot, ensuing some sweet lighting and sound effects – I wish more books that I read gave me this level of presentation when I opened them. There are plenty of removable documents loaded with easter eggs and fun facts. Each book encased in the Files holds some significance to something in the Star Wars universe; for example, the Death Watch booklet inside, given to Boba by his father, features hand-written notes from Jango himself. I tell ya, when Star Wars does a specialty book like this, they never half-ass it, and I’m sure we can expect the same quality of thoroughness with Bounty Hunter Code.

boba fett files

The case includes:

  • The Bounty Hunter Code
  • The 48-page memoirs of Cradossk, former head of the Bounty Hunters Guild, with an inscription from the author to Boba Fett
  • A Kamino saberdart
  • Boba Fett’s captain’s license
  • Boba Fett’s arms permit
  • Slave I’s official operating license
  • An Imperial wanted poster for Han Solo
  • An inventory slip from the Rebel Alliance forces who discovered and seized Boba’s property

2.) Batgirl #26 written by Gail Simone and drawn by Fernando Parasin and Johnathan Glapion is going to be a fun one. Although comics, DC specifically, have been trending towards a lot of crazy covers that don’t exactly depict what happens inside of them, Simone’s Batgirl has been a cut above the rest and I’m sure it will be epic either way. After recent events have led Commissioner Gordon vowing to personally take down Batgirl for committing murder (Yeah, you need to read that story, Batgirl #20), Barbara Gordon has retired as Batgirl, but she keeps finding a way to don the cowl when her dad is in trouble. Is this the moment we’ve been waiting for? Does Babs finally reveal herself as the Batgirl to her dad? I may have to wait until December 11, but I’m psyched to find out.

batgirl 26

3.) The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Kevin Eastman Cover Gallery collects some amazing work from the legendary TMNT creator, Kevin Eastman. In a single-issue priced book, you can ogle at the turtles in all their glory. This is a no brainer for any fan of the TMNT and, at only $3.99, you don’t need to be a baller to get it. You can find all Kevin Eastman’s cover art for the new series here. Hopefully this will suffice for you until the December 4th release date.

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4.) Wolverine: Origin II #1, written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Andy Kubert, looks to pick up right where the original Origin left off, which I’m not going to tell you about because it’s an amazing book (and now a Marvel Knights DVD). It visits more of Wolverine’s primal back-story, and teases to even highlight another character’s secret origin. The main bad guy in the story seems to be Sinister as of now. I hate that asshole, but he makes for some interesting stories. I’m a sucker for Kubert art, and this looks to be visually striking, regardless of storyline. Look for Origin II #1 to be in stores this Christmas Eve.

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5.) Justice League 3000 could be something special. Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMattels , with art by Howard Porter, Justice League 3000 looks to be a pretty sweet futuristic look at the Justice League. With no connection to the Legion of Super-Heroes, a series that takes place in the time period, nor any connections to the current Justice Leaguers, it’s difficult to say what to expect with book. DC Comics has made a habit of putting out new series and themes for more of a cash grab than substance (ala “Villains Month” this month or even the new Batman “Zero Year set to drop next month). For now though, we can revel in the awesomeness that is Green Lantern and Flash’s character design. Expect mixed responses when 3000 hits stores on December 4, 2013.

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Collectibles

1.) Revoltech Yamaguchi Metal Gear Solid Snake and Raiden action figures

You may think you’re too old to play with action figures, but that is a bold-faced lie! At $55 a pop though, these beauties are not for children. They are some pretty nice collectibles, if you can allow yourself to keep it in the box. Unlike the norm for this kind of figure, this Reevoltech Yamaguchi figure is completely poseable, making for some really cool shots like the one below. It’s nice to know that sometimes you don’t need to keep everything in the box to get value out of it. With both Snake and Raiden having a release date of 11/15, this will make some nerd very happy come this holiday season.

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2.) Square Enix DC Comics  Variant Batman Statue – Red costume

On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with admiring a well-sculpted statue still in the box. The Square Enix DC Variant line, the first pieces of which just recently released, are a sort of exaggerated Japanese superhero twist on the Justice League characters. While, of the original releases, Green Lantern was my favorite, the new red costume variant of Batman takes the cake. He has some weird kinda gun thing, he has this weird flowing cape with harpoons at the end… it’s like Flashpoint Batman had a love-child with Megazord. This bad boy won’t be out til February 2014, but its a pretty cool exclusive to add to the closet of other things you never take out of the box… Hard sell lol.

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3.) Batman Arkham Origins Firefly action figure

The Batman villain Firefly has been very seldom used  throughout video games, television and movies, despite having been created over sixty years ago. That all changed when Firefly made an appearance on the live-action Arrow series earlier this year. The character was now a demented pyromaniac with a revenge plan, instead of some guy with a flamethrower. In the new Batman videogame, Batman: Arkham Origins, the Dark Knight is set to take on Firefly head-to-head. Although Firefly is a more obscure villain, I have no doubt that comic book rookies will know his name after battling him in the game. He looks like he belongs in Killzone or Mass Effect, a testament to just how bad-ass this figure looks.  Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get your hands on it until next March, when the game is but a distant memory as a PS3/360 swan song.

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4.) The Walking Dead socks

Don’t judge me! Socks are awesome. A lot of women don’t understand what socks mean to a man. Socks are to men what lingerie is to women. You don’t wear cool socks with the intention of showing it off, but you need to be prepared for that moment that somebody special might get a glance at your feet. “Why yes,” you’ll croon. “These are  officially licensed socks from AMC’s The Walking Dead.  Yes, I suppose I can let you touch them.” Anyway, my imagination got away from me.  Releasing near the start of the mid-season premiere in January 2014 and at $8 per pair, which is pretty decent compared to any other pop-culture branded socks (yes, I’m an expert in that field), you won’t have to break the bank for some of the coolest designs they could choose from in both men’s and women’s sizes. You can find the other designs here. Just a bit of advice to everybody: don’t let your feet smell as bad as the dead things on them.

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5.) Firefly Captain Malcolm pistol replica

Bang, Bang!  Ok… It’s been out for a while, but who doesn’t want one of these?!  For one its cool.  For two, its Captain Mal’s freaking gun!  If the world goes the way that Joss envisions it in Firefly and Serenity then don’t you want to be prepared for that?  You won’t get very far without this beauty.  It should go on you coffee table.  It is the perfect art piece to discuss.  This does mean however, that I will need to get a coffee table to match my new pistol.

Firefly-Serenity-Malcolm-Reynolds-Pistol-Prop-Replica-Quantum-Mechanix

written by Sherif Elkhatib and Adrian Puryear

September Comics and Collectibles Preview

At Hush Comics, we will be starting a new monthly piece reflecting on Diamond Comics Distributors’ monthly PREVIEWS issue. For those not in the know, PREVIEWS is a monthly magazine (almanac-sized each month) that shows you all the ways that you could lose your money through comics, collectibles and games. With the thousands of items to throw money at, we figure we’d make it a little simpler and suggest five comics and five collectibles that will definitely be on our shelves when they are released.

Comics & Books

1.) Fall of the Governor by  Jay Bonansinga and Robert Kirkman ($15 on Amazon) set to be released October 8, 2013. This is the third book in the Governor trilogy of The Walking Dead novels, and looks to tie-in to the comic book series, right around where the Governor meets his end (Spoiler!! He dies). With all the different storylines out there, it’s nice to see that something was created with the intent to supplement and not just making up content for kicks. In this novel, the entire story is told through the perspective of the Governor – a characteristic about the book I like most when considering that the story has always been told with the Grimes’ point of view. It will be interesting to see how others views them, especially The Governor. The first two books were some great literature, so I’m really excited for the final installment.

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2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #28 written by Tom Waltz and drawn by Mateus Santolouco is the finale issue to the big “City Fall” arc that’s ongoing right now. It’s a crazy story that can only be made better by the addition to beloved baddies, Rocksteady and Bebop, as this marks their first fight with the Turtles. The big question on this is what happens to Leonardo as Shredder makes a power move to control the city’s underworld. The issue hits stores November 20, 2013. Count me in!

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3.) Batman: Zero Year tie-ins. It seems like every DC Comics book is either a tie-in to Batman: Zero Year or Forever Evil this month. While the massive amounts of books trying to become relevant by adding the Batman to their title, there are a few that really stand out and make me want to read them for content over marketing. The three titles that come to mind are Birds of Prey #25Green Lantern Corps #25 and Nightwing #25Birds of Prey #25 centers around Black Canary and her crime-fighting origin (the Nunchakus really did it for me). Green Lantern Corps #25 takes a look at then-Marine John Stewart as he grapples with confidence issues (not to mention saving a kid in a Gotham Rogues’ jersey! Nightwing #25 dives deeper into Dick Grayson’s pre-Bruce Wayne background; really, I’m just a sucker for a good Nightwing story. My expectations aren’t too high, but when they flood the market with crossover events, there are bound to be at least a few good ones, and hopefully I’ve picked them out. All issues come out November 2013.

Birds of Prey 25 GL Corps 25 Nightwing-25 (1)

4.) Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe is a math/stat nerd’s dream book. I’m a big fan of graphs and charts. It’s full of information about all the superheroes and comic book characters. I think it will be refreshing because readers will get to see representation of the entire comic book world, as opposed to just Marvel or DC. Being a huge math nerd myself, I will probably spend hours compiling my own lists. It’s a pretty original twist on comic books that hasn’t been seen before, and at a low price, it’s worth hours of fun. In stores now, or $15 on Amazon.

Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe.

5.) Harley Quinn #0 sounds like it could go either way. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex, Catwoman) and drawn by a bunch of different artists, including Art Baltazar (Tiny Titans), Darwyn Cooke (Justice League: New Frontier) and Tony Daniel. With no real momentum to go off of to start this series out, I’m curious as to where this is going to go. This series also marks the first solo series of Harley that isn’t using the 90’s Bruce Timm Batman Animates Series persona to base the character off of. This Harley will be more like the one found in the pages of Batman: Death in the Family and Suicide Squad. I’ve always been a huge Harley Quinn fan, so I will definitely check this out when it hits shelves on November 6th.

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Collectibles

1.) Batman: Hush Batman Kissing Catwoman Statue.

When I first heard that DC Collectibles was creating a foot-tall statue immortalizing the Jim Lee panel in Batman: Hush where Batman and Catwoman share a rooftop kiss, I immediately pre-ordered two. And if we could afford it, I would buy all 2500 limited edition statues because it’s just that damn cool. At $250 retail price, this is definitely for hardcore collectors only. However, the amount of detail put into the statue, from the cape flapping in the wind to the smoke rising in the dark, makes this one of the most well-done collectibles I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty excited to see this on the doorstep come February 2014.

Batman: Hush Kissing the Knight statue designed by Jim Lee

2.) Firefly Card Game

Whedon fans can continue their voyage on the Serenity in Toy Vault Inc.’s new Firefly: Out of the Black card game.  The game is descibed as a “co-op”  where players don’t compete against each other, but rather against the game itself.  Players take turns playing the roles of different Firefly characters to navigate through different events using their smarts.  If they make it through the mission without losing honor, they win.  If not, the game wins.  Sounds a lot like the world of Captain Mal already!  It sounds like an interesting concept.  For less than 30 bucks, it sounds like it is worth a play.

UPDATE: Apparently, this game was funded by Kickstarter, and the funds were canceled.  Toy Vault is planning a release for late October, but it is unknown if this will come to fruition.  We’ll have to watch Firefly repeats in order to live out our space cowboy fantasies until then.

firefly game

3.) Necessary Evil: Super-Villians of DC Comics, DVD and Blu-Ray

In a new documentary narrated by Christopher Lee (the 1958 Dracula, and Saruman in LOTR), interviews with some of the industries most renowned chronicle the backgrounds of DC’s villains.  Interviewees include Zack Snyder (300, Man of Steel), Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) Kevin Conroy (the only voice of Batman that matters), Richard Donner (the 70’s Superman films, the X-Men film series), Geoff Johns (DC Comics writing god), and of course, Jim Lee (DC Comics art god).  The title pretty much says it all about the new film.  Due for release on Oct. 25th, it will surely be one to watch to hear about our favorite and not-so-favorite villains straight from the source.yvlmw8rz4mioo4p5lz2ve7eoa948knc1twjkxh97z8mal81srh1388zuilmomxter7ysvcaoz82q3vha-w370

4.) Pop Funko

The 1966 Batman Pop! Funko vinyls are here!  Doesn’t the Joker look like he could be your best pal?  And the eyebrows on Batman?  How cute!  Those are out on Oct. 3rd.  Also out soon are the Dia de los Muertos Nightmare Before Christmas vinyls. The Day of the Dead pattern and look has become very popular beyond the realms of the origin.  Jack and Sally look awesome!  It could almost call for a remake of the classic cartoon.  Jack and Sally are out now, but hurry, because they are going fast!

Batman 1966 Television Series DC Comics Pop! Heroes Vinyl Figures by Funko - Batman, Robin, The Joker & Catwoman NIGHTMARE-BEFORE-XMAS-FUNKO

5.) Wonder Woman Art of War Statue by Jim Lee

Based on the crisp art of Jim Lee, DC Collectibles is releasing the Wonder Woman: Art of War statue.  From the For Tomorrow Superman story arc, Princess Diana is sculpted by Clayburn Moore.  This statue shows the expertise of boy Lee and Moore’s artistry.  Wonder Woman’s face is feminine, which is rare, and she isn’t overly muscled, either.  The costume isn’t misogynistic and really shows that women can be pretty and tough.  Available for pre-order now and sure to be a fan favorite.

written by Sherif Elkhatib and Adrian Puryear