Is Mario Losing His Touch?

Super Mario Bros. was the exact super charged jolt that the video game industry needed in 1985. Not only did it revive the North American video game market after the crash of 1983 convinced most people that gaming was a lost cause, but it was also a game changer. Gamers had never seen or played anything like it. Mario would go on to star in a plethora of other titles including numerous spin-offs but Nintendo would make sure that they would never forsake Mario's platforming exploits. This plumber is one of the few icons in gaming that has managed to be consistently good in both 2D and 3D. Most importantly, Mario's games have always been fun. However, for some gamers, simply being fun isn't cutting it anymore.

We play video games to have fun. If you aren't having a good time, what's the point in playing? Mario, perhaps more so than any other video game character is the embodiment of having fun in video game. His nickname is Mr. Video Game, for crying out loud. While Mario's games are still entertaining, I'm hearing more people voice their opinions that a lot of Mario's platforming games have been fun but not much else.

[New Super Mario Bros. Wii] The multiplayer
was chaotic but still a nice, new addition to
the series.

I should clarify that I'm not talking about all Mario games. No, I'm strictly referring to the Super Mario series because these are the ones that get the most flack. Despite Nintendo's stubborn refusal to get ride of that cursed Blue Shell, the Mario Kart series hasn't been met with same criticisms that the Super Mario series has from fans.

I've heard numerous reasons for the supposed "decline" in the quality of Mario's platforming adventures. Some say that despite the fun that many of the levels bring, that there's a lack of atmosphere that was present in the earlier games. The magic from the NES, SNES, Super Mario 64 and even Super Mario Sunshine is missing. Being a gamer that was raised on Mario since the days 8-bit days of the NES, I guess I can admit to liking a lot of Mario's earlier games more than his modern day outings. But even so, when a new Super Mario game hits, I'm all over it like white on rice on a paper plate in a snow storm. So while I can sort of see where fans are coming from with that, it isn't something I can completely agree with. Fans of any medium usually hold firm to the belief that no matter how good something is now, it will never be as good as it was back then.

[New Super Mario Bros. 2] Coin Rush mode
added a ton of replay value.

Some say it's far too easy to rack up on lives in the current Mario games. Well, OK, that one is definitely true, but the same goes for the older Marios. Easily stocking up on extra lives was something you could do in the original Super Mario Bros. Everyone knows about the 1-up trick in World 3-1. Stomp the on the Koopa Troopa coming down the stairs, bounce the shell against the steps with Mario in just the right position and bam! You've got more lives than you know what to do with. Funny thing is, Nintendo didn't even think gamers would come up with the idea to use that Koopa Troopa to gain lives so quickly. Every New Super Mario Bros. game has had some variation of the Super Mario Bros. 3-1 1-up trick in honor of gamers being savvy enough to come up with a fast way to gain extra lives. Giving the new Mario games grief for doing something you could just as easily do in the older games seems quite pathetic.

Are certain power-up making the current Marios a cakewalk? Do the levels give you too many power-ups that are specific to the level you're currently in? Some fans think so. Power-ups by their very nature are meant to give the player some kind of edge but I certainly don't think they make the current Mario games a breeze. I speculate one reason we haven't seen the Cape Feather return from Super Mario World is due to how broken it was. Any skilled player could skip entire stages with it by staying in the air. Yoshi was limited to one stage per world in New Super Mario Bros. Wii to prevent players from having too much of an advantage. The Tanooki Suit and Super Leaf powers from Super Mario Bros. 3 helped making precision platforming easier, yet some fans complained that the Tanooki Suit made Super Mario 3D Land too easy, even though the Special Worlds were quite difficulty even if you had a tail.

The games need newer enemies, some fans say! Bowser's band of merry mooks are some the most recognized in gaming. If Nintendo invents new enemies, fans will say the new baddies suck and demand that the old ones make a return. Never mind the fact that Nintendo is using new enemies as well as the old ones.

Do you see where I'm going here? Some of these complaints are well grounded, but a lot of them are just stupid. It's like the fans want to praise the older Marios for being so great and never acknowledge their faults but bash the newer ones for their faults and not give them respect for the ton of good that they've done. It goes back to that whole "everything was better back in the day" argument, much of which, I might add, is fueled by nostalgia and in some cases, and a hate for current day Nintendo.

[Super Mario 3D World] As much new content
as it's bring, I'll bet some fans will still find
some reason to say it isn't as good
as the older games.

I can understand fans getting weary of the New Super Mario Bros. titles. When the original game hit in 2006, it was a wonderful breath of fresh 2D air because there hadn't been a new 2D Mario game in over a decade. So everything old was suddenly new again. Fast forward seven years later and a lot of the New Super Mario Bros. games don't feel so new anymore and the games are starting to feel pretty similar. That being said, I think these are a great way to get a 2D Mario fix and I have no desire to see Nintendo hang up the series. Do change up the music, though.

With everything it has going for it, Super Mario 3D World is looking to be one of the most impressive Mario games since the original Super Mario Galaxy. Four player multiplayer in a 3D Mario game, new power power-ups, all of the playable characters play just as they did in Super Mario Bros. 2 (YES!) and the level designs looking ten times more clever than they did in Super Mario 3D Land. Even Charging Chucks are being brought back! Yet, for all the cool stuff this game is jam packed with, somewhere some group are fans will have their reasons why the game sucks. Sometimes I think Nintendo can't win no matter what they do.

Latest Purchases #59

So a new store called five below opened in the same store section of fye and Barns & Nobles. As the name suggests everything in the store is priced at $5 or below. They've got a lot of great stuff in there and that's where the bulk of my haul came from.

I usually end up paying $17 or more for themed t-shirts, but I got each of these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tees for $5 each. I don't think I've had a TMNT shirt since I was a lad. The black one feels like it was lifted straight from the NES title screen from the first TMNT game. five and below has a great selection of tees, all for $5 so I'll definitely be heading back there next week when I get paid.

Toy Story, one of the greatest computer animated films ever. I've been meaning to pick up the entire series on the Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs but price has been a factor in preventing me from doing so. But getting the Blu-Ray/DVD special edition for $5? How can I say no to that?

Another month, another issue of Retro Gamer. Highlights for Load 120 include the best 25 gaming icons. You'll never guess who topped the list. Spoiler: it's Mario.

Speaking of Mario, he's graced an energy drink called Power-Up and Pac-Man is on his own energy drink as well. I've never been into energy drinks, but these were too cool to pass up. I may give them a try sometime, but I got them mostly for decoration purposes. Now if only we could get the Mega Man E-Tank energy drink here in the states.

My Favorite Video Game Box Art Part 2

I didn't mean to let so much time pass before making a part two to this series, but I got sidetracked and here we are, four months after the first installment. I'll try not to let so much time get away from me before part 3 arrives. Anyway, here's part 2.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japanese ver.)

I just love the complicated history behind this game. First we thought it was a Mario game, although a vastly different one compared to the original Super Mario Bros. Years later, we found out it was a different game, Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters in the place of the original cast. It was thought that because of the character switch that our version of Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn't a true Mario game. Then we found out that our version of Super Mario Bros. 2 began as a prototype sequel. In other words, it was a Mario game from the very beginning. Basically, the game went from being a Mario game, not a Mario game, then back to a Mario game again. Confusing, no?

Anyway, I've always liked the art of the Japanese version over our American cover, which is actually some art from the Japanese version of the original Super Mario Bros. You've got Mario getting ready to lob some veggies at Wart, Luigi. picking up a Shyguy, Peach standing there, appearing to be useless, when in actuality, she's one of the most useful characters in the game and finally, you got Toad, climbing a vine, having the time of this life. I really think the outer pink box compliments the art extremely well.

The Revenge of Shinobi (Japanese ver.)

I happen to favor a lot of Mega Drive box art as some of my favorite gaming box art cover, so you'll have to forgive my mentioning of so many Mega Drive covers during this extensive multi-part feature. Going by the title of The Super Shinobi in Japan, The Revenge of Shinobi was one of the Genesis' earliest games, but from the looks and sounds of it, you'd think it was a later entry. Even today, The Revenge of Shinobi has outstanding visuals and an amazing soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro. On the Japanese cover, we have Joe Musashi, looking on with what appears to be killing intent with his blade drawn. Some of the simplest of visuals with the right choice of colors can be very effective.

Castlevania

Who says all American NES era games had bad box art? OK, so the original Mega Man has laughably horrendous box art but Casltevania? We're talking one of the greatest images to ever grace an NES box easily. I mean, just look at this cover. Simon, Vampire Killer in hand, preparing to storm Dracula's castle, and the big bad himself looming over the castle, looking all menacing. He's even got blood dripping from his fang's which suggest that he's been doing some feeding. At a time where Nintendo of America was heavy on censorship, it's quite the surprise that the blood on Drac's fangs wasn't edited out. In fact this box art is one of those instances where it remained the same as the Japanese version. The only real difference between the American and Japanese box art is that the Famicom Disk version doesn't use the gray borders, allowing for a bit more of the original image to be seen. Even so, I love both versions of this box art.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest 

Undoubtedly the weakest link in the NES Castlevania Trilogy, Simon's Quest threw many players off with it's no liner setting and plenty of Guide Dang It gameplay scenarios. That said, it nailed it on the soundtrack as well as the box art. Konami's American branch had a thing for placing gray borders on it's boxes, similar to Capcom USA's purple boxes and I had no problem with either.

Chrono Trigger (Japanese Ver.)

I've been a fan of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball series for more than ten years now and I've been a fan of Chrono Trigger far longer than that. At the time, I had no idea that Toriyama was the designer for the characters in one of my all-time favorite video games. These days, his art style is instantly recognizable to me. The Japanese version of Chrono Trigger's box art show's all of the game's playable characters (except Magus) against a white backdrop. Toriyama drew a brand new cover for the North American release, which I like, but not as much as this one.

Einhänder (Japanese ver.)

Have I mentioned that blue is my favorite color? Well, it is. The dark blue background color with a skeletal hand reaching down is another use of simple but oh-so effective imagery. I'm always bowled over at how powerful this picture looks. I'm guessing the developers were quite fond of it because it's the exact same image used for the title screen and it's even the cover for the game's soundtrack album. From the outside looking in, the use of a lone hand may seem like a strange image to use for a shooter, but let's take into account the game's title, Einhänder. That's German, which means single handed, which is how most of your ship's weapons operate.

Super Mario 64 (Japanese ver.)

I mentioned how much I like the American version of Super Mario 64's box art in part 1 but I'm also very fond of the Japanese version. In the early days of the N64, Nintendo was very fond of the white boxes for their games. Nintendo could have shown Mario using the other two Cap power-ups, but I think the use of the Wing Cap was a wise choice. Sure, Mario has flown before in previous games, but never quite like this.

NiGHTS into dreams... (American ver.)

The American covers can't always lose out to their Japanese counterparts and this is one of those times where American beats Japan. The flying in NiGHTS isn't quite as open ended as that of Super Mario 64. It's actually far more restricted, but even so, flying in NiGHTS is quite exhilarating and since it's an important part of the gameplay, why not advertise it on the cover? It's certainly much better than the overseas version, which actually isn't bad, but I gotta give SEGA of America credit for making the call to change it.

Part 1

Favorite Tunes #71: A Day at the Races

I've never been to a single race circuit myself, but I do love me some racing games. There's just something undeniably thrilling about driving around a race track at breakneck speed, fighting the competition to get into first place. When you have some good music to listen to while doing that, it just makes things so much sweeter.

Turbo Man Stage - Mega Man 7 (SNES)

Anytime I get the chance to say I really like Mega Man 7, I'm going to take it. Even with bigger sprites, and only four Robot Masters to choose from at the game's beginning, it's still one of my favorite Mega Man games. I especially liked Turbo Man's level, even if one section gave me horrible flashbacks of Quick Man's stage.

Big Surf - Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PS2, XB, GCN)

Ah, 2003. For me, the year was full of Ikaruga and Burnout 2. I kid you not, I played this game to death. I did everything there was to do in it. I completed the Grand Prix mode and got all golds on Crash mode. It was easily some of the most enjoyment I'd gotten out of a racing game. This was the last Burnout to use original music. Starting with Burnout 3, the series would go forward with licensed tracks, which wasn't bad, but I kind of miss some of series original music.

For the Glory (Mute City) - F-Zero GX (GCN)

The GameCube may have been a commercial failure, but some of Nintendo's greatest games came from this very platform like Pikmin, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime and of course, the retail failure,  F-Zero GX. Developed by SEGA's now defunct second party of Amusement Vision, GX is championed as the pinnacle of the F-Zero franchise despite having a difficulty that is on par with the likes of Battletoads. Since SEGA usually always has their ducks in a row when it comes to music, GX's soundtrack is outstanding featuring arrangements of familiar F-Zero tunes along with plenty of brand new songs.

Samurai Rocket - Ridge Racer V (PS2)

A port of the arcade Ridge Racer graced the launch of the original PlayStation in 1994 and in 2000, Ridge Racer V launched alongside the PS2. Even with some jaggies, RRV was still an amazing technical show piece of what Sony's new hardware was capable of.

Club Paris - Metropolis Street Racer (DC)

Bringing some fresh takes on the racing genre at the time, Metropolis Street Racer's street racers took place in real time in the cities of Tokyo, London and San Francisco using the Dreamcast's internal clock. The game used a Kudos system that rewarded the player with driving with speed as well as style. Doing shabby in either of those departments deducted from your Kudos score. The soundtrack was scored by famed game composer Richard Jacques so it should go without saying that it's excellent.

Metro Madness - Beetle Adventure Racing! (N64)

The Nintendo 64 was over-saturated with racing games and unless they featured some plumbers or the Blue Falcon, you were probably inclined to ignore most of them. But if you passed on Beetle Adventure Racing, well, you missed out on one of the best games for the system. BAR! let you race as officially licensed Volkswagen Beetle cars on huge, HUGE tracks with tons of hidden shortcuts.

Figure 8 Circuit - Mario Kart DS (DS)

It may look blocky today and snaking may have killed the online racing, but Mario Kart DS is still one of my favorite entries in the series.  The second portable Mario Kart brought even more characters than Super Circuit and some of the most creative track designs the series has ever seen like the psychedelic Waligi Pinball course. I'd love to hear a remix of this theme in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Outride a Crisis - Super Hang-On (ARC)

SEGA dished out a ton of arcade hits back in the day, like OutRun, Space Harrier and or course Super Hang-On. There were no forks in the road like OutRun so this made the racing much more liner, but Super Hang-On gave you a greater sense of speed since you were riding on motorcycles. You could also choose your music track. There are only four tunes to choose from and while they all sound great, this one is probably the best of the lot. I also recommend the Mickey Arrange Version as it is absolutely sick.

Fantasy Meadows - Kirby Air Ride (GCN)

The GameCube got some of it's best games in 2003. Ikaruga, F-Zero GX, The Wind Waker, Viewtiful Joe (later ported to the PS2), Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Kirby Air Ride. While Air Ride may seem like an overly simplified game compared to F-Zero GX and Double Dash!!, one could make the argument that Air Ride offers far more to do than both those two games combined. The Checklist offers a myriad of goals for you to shoot for and it could take years before you see everything this game has to offer. And as simple as it is, Air Ride is a whole lot of fun.

Greatfall in the Sky - Daytona USA 2001 (DC)

Released in the West as simply Daytona USA, this was more of an update than a full blown sequel. This was the first Daytona game that I played and after getting used to the twitchy controls, Daytona USA become one of my favorite Dreamcast titles.

Favorite Tunes Database

Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter is a Mighty Success

You'll have to pardon the terrible title of this one, but, in case you haven't guessed, I'm really excited. The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter, that started back on August 31, ended on September 1. Including Kickstarter backing funds and those from Paypal, Mighty No. 9 has met every single one of it's stretch goals with over 4 million dollars. That is nothing short of astounding.

I was thrilled when Mighty No. 9 met it's initial stretch goal and the game was green lit. Just being able to play the game on PC was good enough for many but now we're getting console releases on current gen systems, next gen systems, 3DS and Vita releases, a chiptune style soundtrack in addition to the soundtrack and a plethora of other features. The sheer devotion from the fans is amazing and once again, it goes to show just how much power we as consumers have in this industry of ours. We craved a Mega Man-style game and we were able to make it happen.

The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter may be closed but the Mighty No. 9 PayPal is still open and accepting funds so if you want to continue backing the game, you can still do so. I'm really looking forward to playing this game on the consoles and handhelds in 2015. To those who backed it to those that supported in in other ways by just getting the word out, thank you so much.

Latest Purchases #58

I'd been meaning to pick up more t-shirts this year so when fye reopened, I couldn't wait to check out their selection again. I had been thinking of picking up a Flash t-shirt and after watching Flashpoint Paradox numerous times, that encouraged me to nab one. Oh and in case you're wondering, Wally West is my favorite Flash.

I've never played either of the Portal games, but I thought the design of this tee looked awesome so I picked it up. I suppose I'll have to check the games out someday.

While I was in Wal-Mart finishing up shopping for my sister's birthday, I came across the Marvel and Deadpool tees for only $7.50 each. No way I was gonna pass those up. I'd seen a black Deadpool shirt at fye with a less damaged Deadpool logo but I really like the gray of this one. That and it was a lot cheaper.

Long have I heard about the greatness that is Carl Barks and his Donald Duck add Uncle Scrooge comics. They may have been made well before my time but from my understanding, Barks' works are timeless. I never imagined I'd get to check out Barks' original stories, but Fantagraphics Books is releasing the whole set under what they are calling The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. Only a handful of these books are out right now and each one collects over 200 pages of duck comics in hardcover format and include extras like a plethora of story notes and comic covers. The collection well clock it at thirty books total so I predict that it will probably take some time for anyone looking to collect the whole set. The two books I picked up are The Old Castle's Secret and A Christmas for Shacktown.

Back in 2011, I picked up a lovely hardcover, my first Fantagraphics Book to me precise. It was called Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley, by Floyd Gottfredson. See, I'd known that Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge had comics but the Mouse having comics that date back to the 1930s? That was news to me. Given Mickey's immense popularity, I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I really was. Mickey Mouse appeared in daily newspaper comics from 1930 to 1975. That's 45 years of Mouse comics! Race to Death Valley is the first book of the Floyd Gottfredson Library and with 45 years worth of comics, it's going to take quite a while before the whole library is finished. Like The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library, only a few books are out in the Floyd Gottfredson Library. What's available right now are Volumes 1-4 and Volumes 1-2 of the Color Sundays. Thus far, I have Volume 1 and Volume 2 and 4. Volume 2 is Trapped on Treasure Island and Volume 4 is House of the Seven Haunts. The reason I picked up Volume 4 before Volume 3 was an issue of price. Amazon had Volume 4 for $8.27 and Volume 2 for $12, each brand new. These hardcovers usually go for around $30 in book stores so that was an incredible bargain. Still, $20 for Volume 3, isn't too shabby and that will be the next book in this series that I pick up. Each of these books have a ton of bonus material in addition to the comics and these come highly recommended to anyone with even the slightest interest in Mickey Mouse or comics in general.

I picked up two sketch pads because I've been meaning to get back into drawing and the two in the above picture had really nice hardcovers, which was part of the reason I nabbed them. They were also quite cheap.

I've been playing DuckTales and listening to the music of DuckTales: Remeastered and that got me in the mood to pick up some DuckTales on DVD. I had the first two volumes but they ended up getting lost. It still kills me that Disney refuses to finish releasing most of their Disney Afternoon cartoons on DVD.

It really does pay to look through the bargain bins. A mist the junk, I found some real gems. I did not expect to find a case containing a code for DuckTales: Remastered. It also comes with a pin. Even though DuckTales: Remastered is a digital game, it will still be nice to have something to put on my shelf. And for $10, I can't really complain.

Also in the bargain bin was Zone of the Enders HD Collection. I know this isn't the best HD Collection out there but for $15, I wasn't gonna pass on the mech action. That and 2nd Runner is not easy to come by.

My Gripes with the Comic Book Industry

As a boy, I was always in a rush to read the comics in the newspapers. Seeing what kind of mischief Calvin and Hobbs were getting into never failed to bring a smile to my face. When I turned thirteen, I started picking up comic books, really getting into Spider-Man and X-Men. In the years that followed, I found out more about Marvel and DC's world than I'd previously known. I wasn't a the go to guy for happenings in the comic book world, but I was still very much a comic book geek. These days, well, not so much. I mean, I still like comic books, but I haven't paid a dime for a Spider-Man comic over three years. Four industry practices have pretty much burned me out on mainstream comic books to the point that I've been looking elsewhere to get my fix.


1. Reboots/Relaunches

DC said their New 52 wasn't a reboot. I'm calling bull on that one. Why? Because they told us it wasn't a reboot. When you cancel all of your comics to relaunch them with new number ones and the Justice League is coming together for the first time, that's a reboot. DC is the biggest offender of this. They wanted to draw in new readers (that's what they say, anyway) so once Flashpoint was done, they rebooted their entire comics line. I'm a fan of a lot of DC's super heroes but I've never actively purchased their comic books like I did a few of Marvel's titles. Most of the Superman and Batman comics I own are trade paper backs. I was thinking of getting into DC's books but when I heard they were pulling this stunt, my interest dropped faster than Mega Man when he falls through those platforms in Guts Man's level.

I miss the red underpants.

Marvel is no saint when it comes to this either. I've lost count of how many times Dardevil has been rebooted. The Ultimate Comics line, wasn't even safe from this. Though to be fair, many pretty much agree that Jeph Loeb was screwing it up with Ultimatum. Still it was irritating to have Ultimate Spider-Man get reset back to early numbers, only to have it revert back to the original number again and then reset once more when Peter Parker died. Yeah, he died in the Ultimate world as well, but he died a comic book death.

Reboots can increase sales and draw in new readers and DC's New 52 has been a huge success as far as money goes. I've peeked in on a few of the books and really haven't been impressed. If the first issue of the new Justice League was any indication, I don't know if I'll enjoy the DC animated movie Justice League: War, which is supposed to be based off off the first six issues of the New 52 Justice League.

2. Death is a Joke

The Joker, great arch villain that he, used Joker Immunity to escape the Grim Reaper's scythe once more in one of my favorite episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Batman asks him how he survived. The Joker's response?

"I've been blown up, dropped down smokestacks, fed to sharks. I'm the Joker, I always survive."

It's just a flesh wound, he'll be all right.

Without question death is the biggest laughing stock in comic books. It doesn't matter how someone dies or how convincing it looks. They'll always be back. Even the Grim Reaper must yield to a higher power and that power is sales. It's the only reason anyone in comic books "dies" these days.

When Superman was killed off by Doomsday in the early 1990s, everyone on the planet heard about, even those that don't read comic books, because, well, it's Superman. That story made newspaper headlines, had spotlights on the TV news and just about every news outlet can think of. Supes dying was terrible but DC was laughing all the way to the bank about it because big blue's death made them truckloads of cash. When Captain America was killed in 2006, it was the Death of Superman all over again. Everyone heard about it and it made the news. Of course, just like Supes, Cap didn't stay dead. Or in some cases, they were never dead in the first place. Sometimes they're locked in a deep coma or are last in time or whatever contrived plot device the writers can pull out of their butts.

I no longer feel sad for the passing of fictional characters. What I do feel is annoyance. Johnny Storm, AKA the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four was only killed off so Marvel could boost sales. After hearing of his death, I merely rolled my eyes, wondering how many months we'd have to wait for him to return. Spider-Man died earlier this year. To anyone feeling upset about that and having Doc Ock running around in Peter's body, to that I say, chillax. Peter will be back and this farce will be over eventually.

One of the few cases where a comic
book death has actually stuck.

Death in comics is nothing more than a means for publishers to see more dough. Ever since Superman kicked the bucket, death has always been about the almighty dollar. Rather than trying something new, giving readers more creative stories, or further fleshing out characters, writers take the easy way out and kill off a big name character for nothing more than shock value and a sales boost. Death has no impact, no lasting effect and no power in comic books anymore so I no longer give a crap when someone dies. In this medium, killing someone is easy. Keeping them dead? Now that's the tricky part.

3. Big Events

What used to occur every now and then has turned into a yearly thing. I didn't mind this at first but after House of M and Civil War, I had my fill of these big event crossover stories, but they've been a staple for both Marvel and DC for years.

Now some of my favorite comic book tales actually stem from big events and crossovers. Marvel's original Secret Wars may have been all about selling toys, but it really was a pretty sweet tale. We saw, Spidey trash the X-Men, Dr. Doom get god-like powers, the Hulk holding up a couple billion tons to keep the heroes from dying and a lot of other good stuff. And if it weren't for crossovers, Mega Man and Sonic never would have teamed up in Worlds Collide this year. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox was based off of the main five issue mini series, Flashpoint, and I really dug that animated flick, as violent as it was.

Not a world war by any means.

Still, I honestly don't think the comic book industry needs to have this big event stories every single year, especially when they result in some pretty underwhelming stories. I never read DC's Blackest Knight, but from my understanding, it sucked hard. Joe Quesada said Marvel's World War Hulk was said to rival Civil War in impact. You'd think that having the words "World War" in the title that the scope would be much more grand. In reality, a very peeved Hulk comes back to Earth after being sent out into space by the Illuminate, beats up the Marvel Heroes and gives New York some more collateral damage. That's World War Hulk in a nutshell.

4. Marriage Makes You Boring

Many people in the comic book business tend to (foolishly) hold firm to the belief that when your star character gets married, the story is over. Lots of movies end when the two people that are in love get married so I can only guess that that's where that type of thinking comes from.

In the case of Spider-Man, the folks at Marvel felt it limited Spidey's potential for good stories and made him older. One More Day, the four part story line made for the soul purpose of killing off Spidey's marriage was released in 2007. By the time the story was finished, Spidey had been married for twenty years and had remained one of the world's most iconic super heroes. So Quesada's fears that a married Spidey damaged the character were very much all for naught.

As someone who is not married, I never once felt Spidey being wed killed my ability to identify with him. If anything, I thought it was cool that he could be a super hero and still hold down a successful marriage. But to Quesada, that took quite a bit a drama out of the books. By "drama" I mean all sorts of ridiculous Threes Company crap and will they won't they nonsense.

Yes, Spidey was made single so they could rehash the same headache inducing romance subplots that grew stale eons ago. Such pathetic attempts at romance were done with Michelle Gonzales, the feisty Latina, and on an even more vomit-inducing scale with Carly Cooper. Carly was fellow science nerd that was named after Quesada's own daughter. Make of that what you will. Carly actually wasn't so bad in the beginning. She was one of the new members of the supporting cast that didn't bother me. But when the writers constantly threw her in my face and had long-time supporting cast members harp on and on about how great she is, I wanted to jump through the pages of the book and strangle her. When Carly and Peter did get together it felt so forced and fake, wreaking of editorial mandate, because well, that's exactly what it was.

Superman wasn't spared the same fate that Spider-Man suffered. When the new 52 was set in motion, Clark's marriage to Lois Lane was given the axe. But hey, it's all good because now he's hooked up with Wonder Woman. I mean, that's got to be a better pairing because both are in the same line of work, are super strong and OK, that's enough. Even I can't drag that out any further. The only reason Superman and Wonder Woman were thrown together is because it was the obvious pairing. True, they do have things in common, but Superman has loved Lois Lane since 1938. DC is never going to truly convince us that he belongs with another woman, even one as wonderful as Wonder Woman.

I don't expect someone like Batman to get married because, he's got serious issues and is arguably more dedicated to the cause of being a hero than anyone else. But heroes like Spider-Man, the Flash and Superman? Oh, yeah, I can totally buy the idea of them being married. Yet so many writers want them to be single so they can keep their iconic status. If someone can tell me how unmarried equals iconic status, I would be ever so grateful.

Just how does being married limit the potential for good stories? There was all sorts of drama between Peter and Mary Jane during the twenty years they were married. The same goes for Lois and Clark. I think a lot of these writers are admitting their failings as writers if they can't find anything to write about for a married couple. The only reason Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman were left alone is because they were married back in the 1960s. If you were married after that time, you'r marriage in the comic book world is not safe.

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I'm still a comic reader, but not on the same level that I once was. These days I'm only reading a handful of comics, two of them which star video game characters and the rest are through trade paper backs. Maybe someday I'll get back into mainstream comics but right now, I'm doing just fine without them. I've got The DC Animated Universe, and a plethora of other DC and Marvel animated shows to watch for my super hero needs.