Hi guys, and welcome to Game Box; a new series where I look at some of the games I’ve been playing recently since I finally have a console again. First up, I’m coming to be talking about the recent Open Beta for Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes Omega.

Marvel Heroes Omega assembles one of the largest gatherings of iconic Super Heroes, Super Villains, and locations from the Marvel Universe in gaming history for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.

Set in the iconic Marvel Universe, Marvel Heroes Omega combines the core game-play style of Action RPGs and MMOs with the expansive library of heroes from the Marvel Universe. In the game, players can collect and play as their favorite Marvel Super Heroes (including Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America and many others).

Team up with friends and try to stop Doctor Doom from devastating the world with the power of the Cosmic Cube in a story written by Marvel comic super-scribe Brian Michael Bendis.

From moment one, you’re given a gorgeous introduction sequence featuring some pretty good 3D models and 2D animated sections retelling the origins of the more famous Marvel Heroes. A fair few of the cut scenes in-game follow a more motion comic style and while the blend of styles is a little jarring at first, I give the creators credit for trying something different.

The tutorial drops you in the middle of a mission with Captain America and allows you the time to figure out your buttons before setting you against Ultron and his minions. Each of your attacks is assigned to one of the four face buttons and you can bring up a secondary menu by holding L2. It’s an intuitive system to help console players easily access their full range of abilities that’s a staple of MMOs on consoles.

Throughout the tutorial, you’re given the ability to play as Cap, Black Widow and Hulk before they allow you to access the launch roster of heroes. It’s a right Who’s Who of MCU characters alongside more established characters. You get all the ones you know and then you get the likes of Wiccan, Squirrel Girl and Angela, which is cool. Given this is a Free-To-Play game, you’re given the opportunity to try before you buy any of these characters before Level 10 when you have to pick your starter character.

I eventually chose She-Hulk and upon entering the game proper, I noticed a cute quirk this game has. Depending on the characters in the vicinity, there are unique snippets of dialogue from both your character and those of other players. This gives the world a little more connectivity and hearing Shulkie interact with Gambit in the moments in the mission worlds or at the HQ is pretty fun. The voice cast for this game is exhaustive too, bringing in all the voices you’d associate with these characters from various animated shows as well as bringing in actors such as Clark Gregg and Keith David, voicing Agent Coulson and Nick Fury, respectively.

Being a FTP game, more heroes are unlocked through Founder’s Packs of various price points, by using Eternity Splinters or by accumulating the specfic in-game currency to buy them or unlock additional costumes. You can get an additional hero for nothing though, by downloading Daredevil for free and the additional Man Without Fear costume for free if you are a PS Plus member.

You can customise your heroes with character-specific loot drops for defeating enemies and augment their abilities through levelling or attaching Medallions from defeated super villains.

Given the amount of FTP MMO games on consoles at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just another but the game plays like the X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games, taking an isometric view of the action but adds the MMO component and the whole package feels a little like that Avengers Alliance game for its breadth of characters and customisation potential.

If you’re looking for a quick and fun MMO to get into or are jonesing for a Marvel game that isn’t on mobile (that’s me) then I recommend giving this game a shot. Marvel Heroes Omega is currently available for Open Beta on Playstation 4 and will be officially released on June 4 2017. For more details and updates, head over to the official website and be sure to follow the game’s Twitter.

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Logan is being directed by James Mangold, the man who did the previous excursion The Wolverine (also Walk The Line, which is funny considering the trailer’s choice of music). The list of writers is a little interesting. David James Kelly is making his big screen debut with this script and Michael Green previously wrote the Green Lantern movie. That’s… concerning.

It’s been 24 hours now since the trailer debuted so lets take a considered look at it.

– Interesting Factors

I like that the movie took the choice to move the story on to a future date. It really gives it a chance to do something different. For example, it seems pretty clear that Wolverine’s healing factor is no longer working.

– Chuck But No Chuckles

Listen, when they show you everyone’s surrogate grandfather in this sort of condition you can guarantee this isn’t going to have the kind of quips and light-hearted beats of previous X-Men films. Prepare to feel some feelings.

– She’s Like You

“Very much like you”. Yeah, I’m pretty sure we can rest easy knowing that little Laura here is the clone of Wolverine from the comics, X-23. Will she be a loyal adaptation though? Will she have the claws? We may have gotten a sneak peek at that later in the trailer (it’s unclear) but keep in mind what Fox did with the Deadpool character in the first Wolverine movie. She may be in this but she may not be the same…

– The End

The ending to this trailer looks and feels like it could be the last shot of the movie too but I don’t think we’re getting out of this that easily. If Wolverine doesn’t die in Logan I’ll eat all the hats in a hat factory.

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Overall: It looks a lot like the Old Man Logan comic that Marvel did a couple years ago, although a whittled down version of it which is a good thing. I can never be fully confident in a Fox superhero film living up to it’s trailer. Right now though, I’m interested, which I haven’t been for any Wolverine movie previously.

– Aw Jeez

A lot has been made about the dodgy design of Quicksilver and after seeing it here, it really does look bad.

Also, is that ducktape? Man, they really cobbled Cerebro together, didn’t they?

– Pryde (In The Name of Love)

There is only a couple flashes of Ellen Page in this trailer. Considering her character Kitty Pryde is such a central part of the original comic, that could be a worrying sign.

You may be able to explain it away with the fact that she’s probably one of the few cast members who hasn’t won an oscar (although she was nominated so even that doesnt work).

– Arsenal 1 – Senti Nil

They’ve been very coy with revealing the Sentinels in action. I know there has been a promo photo or two but so far in the trailers they haven’t shown us one fully.

However, the promotional photograph I saw didn’t wow me. It was like if Apple design Iron Man.

– 10 Year Old Me Just Got A Boner

I’ve adored Iceman since I was a little kid. And one positive thing about the original X-Men trilogy was his character growth and arc as he learned to be a hero and control his powers. So to see this…

… made me happier than a 30 year old man really should get about this sort of thing.

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Overall: Just when I thought I was out… they pulled me back in! Days of Future Past is a crazy story to be translating to film and to combine both X-Men casts to make it was a mammoth undertaking. I thought it was going to be a mess, and it still might be, but this trailer has peaked my interest. I may just have to catch this one. Fool me once…

JJ and his amazing friend (and Assistant Manager) Jason are here to drink coffee, and have a podcast…and they drank all the coffee. (true story) This week Jason goes to the movies (a lot) JJ goes once (no surprise). What did Jason like and not like? Also, why does Adam West’s Batman have do do with any of this? (not much actually) Why did JJ stop recording in the middle? (it was a mistake) Most importantly…why the hell is JJ putting in all the parenthetical statements? Also, why does he always write these in third person? (I just don’t know)

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I think it’s pretty unanimous that the last Wolverine movie sucked. We don’t have to skirt around it. With that settled, this follow up has a lot of work to do in order to both reclaim the brand’s respectability and also win over the audience it lost.

The general likeability of Hugh Jackman is a plus. You can just tell that he really cares about the character and loves playing him. They’ve taken him to Japan where a lot of great Wolverine stories are written. The director has “Girl, Interrupted” and “Walk The Line” on his CV. So there are still some things to be positive about.

Considering the movie is out in July, for this to be the first full length trailer released today is quite unusual. Often these days you’ll see a trailer even a full year before the movie is released. It’s hard to tell if that’s to do with the endless production delays (every director has been attached to this at some point or another) or just plain secrecy. But now that it’s here, it would be plain rude not to take a look.

– Hey Who Turned Out All The Lights?

This is not exactly a bright film.

I guess light bulbs are expensive to have on set.

– Bad Fringe Day

This is Yukio. Lady Deathstrike was also called Yukio. But technically we’ve already seen her in X2. It will be interesting to see just how attached to continuity the film is.

She looks like she cut her hair with her own adamantium fingernails, by the way.

– Helloooooooooo, nurse Silver Samurai!

The Silver Samurai is one of those characters that has a cult following but after the mistreatment of so many such characters in the past, will this one follow suit?

The fact that we’re seeing the armour here in some kind of laboratory style setting makes me worry that he’s going to be another voiceless bad-guy and that would be doing him a disservice. Hopefully I’m proved wrong.

– Ninjas!

Ninjas!

It’s all we wanted!

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Overall: I’m actually feeling positive about this film. I never thought I’d say such things about a Fox produced Marvel movie but maybe Jackman has finally gotten what he wanted. The trailer, at least, is raising hope that this turns out great.

Given my focus on New 52 titles and DC collections, one can easily assume in the ever futile war between DC and Marvel, my allegiances fall squarely with DC. However, I do have a soft spot for a few Marvel characters, mainly those I was exposed to in animated form in the Saturday mornings of my youth: X-Men, Spider-Man, and The Fantastic Four though Iron Man and Hulk flew under my radar. And while what Spider-Man comics I’ve read both engendered and solidified my absolute hatred for the character (at least in comic book form) as well as encapsulates all the things that annoy me about Marvel and their approach to their characters, the X-Men faired a great deal better despite Marvel’s continued efforts to dismantle and obliterate them from the foundation up.

In fact, given the X-Men’s general propensity to act like complete jag-offs in the majority of stories where they appear, you’d think they’d get on my nerves even more than Spidey. But the X-Men, in general, are put upon in a far greater degree than Spider-Man, whose own miseries seem to be self-generated more than anything. The X-Men can’t help being mutants while Peter Parker could easily abandon his role and retire to Nebraska with Aunt May where the supervillains won’t bother them anymore (I’m sure plenty can argue how completely wrong I am, how I fail to graps the essence of Peter’s character, or whatever, but, frankly, I just do not care at this point). The X-Men at least have an excuse for being angry assholes because everyone else in the Marvel universe has shat on them at one point or another. So I cut them some slack.

Journey into Mystery is another beast entirely, but first thing’s first.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega

Following the events of Schism, the X-Men split into two faction: Cyclops’ west coast group of mutants working to keep the mutant race alive while pursuing their usual superheroic antics resplendent with clones, aliens, super-evolved dino-creatures and so forth; and the newly renovated Westchester school reopened and headed by Wolverine of all people, harkening back to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men which placed heavier emphasis on the operation and activities of Professor Xavier’s school. Similarly, Wolverine and the X-Men takes the usual weird science adventures of the X-Men and suffuses them with a healthy dose of high school drama.

While Kieron Gillen may be my favorite writer of Marvel’s current stable of talent, Wolverine and the X-Men just manages to outdo Uncanny X-Men for the sheer fun of the stories therein. Every superhero and their mother can fight off a cosmic threat or monsters from the depths, but not many can deal with the true horror and evil that is teenagers. There’s just something inherently interesting about seeing Wolverine trying to be the sympathetic headmaster, rising to the occasion despite all the obvious personality problems one would expect to hinder him. Certainly more interesting than watching Cyclops continue to be the same old jerk he’s always been for the past…however many decades at this point.

And Alpha & Omega brings us a new spin on one of the most classic of school conflicts: the insolent, anti-authoritarian student against the stern, oppressive headmaster. Okay, it’s not quite Animal House but it’s got some things going for it. Here, we have Logan as the ornery headmaster and Kid Omega, Quentin Quire, a Grant Morrison creation right out of New X-Men, as the irascible, self-righteous student willing to stand up to that crusty old dean…urr, headmaster. Only, without the bad boy charm of a John Bender, Quire’s revolution remains one-manned.

But rather than the usual schoolboy mischief of tacks on chairs, bullfrogs stuffed in desk drawers, or other Bart Simpson-esque antics, Quentin ups the ante by outright kidnapping Logan’s consciousness, injecting it into a psychic video game-inspired construct. And, of course, everything goes swimmingly, Logan concedes victory to Quire, and our heroes celebrate with punch and pie…Oh, of course everything goes wrong! This is an X-Men comic! Since when has the overuse of psychic powers not led to horrific outcomes? Sure enough, Quentin loses control of the construct while Wolverine’s dislodged id takes control of his body, rampaging through the school on a mad hunt for Quire.

A mini-series composed of five issues, Alpha & Omega deviates from the normal Wolverine and the X-Men storyline to deliver a standalone adventure. Authored by Brian Wood, creator of DMZ and Northlanders, Wood brings a fun sensibility to the book without delivering much else in the way of exceptional prose or characterization.

In fact, the worst that can be said about this book is that it provides few dramatic twists or plot complications. I mean, we’ve captured Wolverine’s consciousness in an altered reality and Wood’s first instinct is to put him in post-apocalyptic/cyberpunk future sure to evoke memories of Age of Apocalypse. Except without the dramatically altered character personalities and circumstances…you know, the things that made Age of Apocalypse interesting.

Here, Logan remains Logan, just without his normal memories and the universe of Quire’s construct never gets explored beyond the surface details. It’s a hodgepodge of various science fiction memes, characters, and tropes, including visual cameos from Appleseed’s Briareos, Panzer troops out of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, and an escapee from a Final Fantasy game. Putting Wolverine in Quire’s head seems like the perfect opportunity for some Psychonaut-inspired antics with Logan forced to navigate the self-obsessed consciousness of the Jean Grey School for the Higher Learning’s most troublesome student, each learning a bit about the other until they can begrudgingly admit a bit of mutual respect by book’s end, but the two barely interact until the last two issues and even then it amounts to the usual antagonism we expect from these characters. Quire’s underlying insecurities and self-doubt lead to his loss of control over the construct, yet we get very little of Logan exploiting that or the two characters bonding over their common hubristic foibles. In the end, it doesn’t feel like much has been achieved with this story. Sure, maybe Logan and Quire grow a little closer, a smidge maybe, but it’s nothing exceptional. At most, they gain a modicum of respect for each other.

Regardless, Alpha & Omega remains a fun episodic adventure, a break from Wolvie’s trepidations with the school and confrontations with the likes of the renewed Hellfire Club. Plus, more of Kid Omega’s affably unwarranted narcissism that makes him such a lovable bastard for fans of the character like myself. Nothing essential but harmlessly enjoyable nonetheless.

Journey into Mystery: The Terrorism Myth

Journey into Mystery, beginning with its reinvention during Marvel’s Fear Itself event quickly became one of Marvel’s most noteworthy books. Bringing on writer Kieron Gillen and shifting focus from Thor to his resurrected brother, the god of mischief and trickery himself Loki — now, of course, kid Loki, complete with a new sense of conscience — . While I enjoy Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men, Journey into Mystery is the only book being put out by Marvel that I really love to read.

No doubt due to Gillen’s amount of creative freedom to explore odd and different aspects of storytelling, Journey into Mystery doesn’t read like many other Marvel books. There’s an unadulterated joy and affection for its central character that you rarely see in other books where writers regularly pile heaps of woes on characters to elicit drama and investment rather than developing character and honing dialogue. Meanwhile, Journey continues to build on Loki’s development from one of the Marvel U’s chief nemeses into a good-hearted lad shouldering an undue legacy.

The fallout from Fear Itself continues to plague the Marvel universe in The Terrorism Myth, only now the Lords of Fear once again step to the fore as Nightmare goes about collecting the raw fear created by the Serpent in the minds of those he terrorized. The task falls to Loki and his companions — Hela’s former ward Leah, and Marvel’s resident shirt-allergic exorcist Daimon Hellstrom — to penetrate the victims’ nightmares and strike at the Lord of Fear before he fulfills his…vaguely defined malevolent plan. The Lords of Fear, while bubbling with creative methods for dispensing their namesake, lack in the way of big picture ideas. But none of that before a one-shot Christmas special where Loki must find homes for seven wayward hellhounds foisted on him by Mephisto. It may be July, but I can sure feel the holiday cheer.

In many ways, Gillen’s Journey into Mystery reminds me of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman — and more than for the mere presence of a dream lord. The blending of myth and reality, the bending of traditional storytelling devices, the invasion of the mundane into the mythic and vice-versa, it all has a very Gaiman sensibility. But Journey errs much more on the lighter side of things, eschewing the heavy metaphysics that occasionally assailed Sandman in favor of plucky adventures of an underdog. The focus remains ever fixated on Loki, his friends, his relationships, and his journey for redemption in the face of a monolithically villainous legacy while the mythopoetics remain at the outskirts, complementing the character drama without overshadowing it.

Gillen’s exceptionally well crafted prose also stands out as one of the book’s greatest assets. It simply wouldn’t be the lovable book that it is without Gillen’s snarky, self-aware narrator, Loki’s twists of phrase, and the collision of Asgardian faux-High English with modern speech. In the same way Sandman isn’t quite Sandman without Gaiman, so too follows Journey and Gillen.

So continues the adventures of Marvel’s trickster god, ever enjoyable as they have been for the past two volumes. With Marvel’s recent announcement regarding the revamping of their entire line, the continuation of Journey into Mystery remains up in the air. Frankly, Marvel would be remiss to even consider canceling Journey given all the potential and genuine love for the characters and stories therein.