Happy 12TH Birthday DREAMCAST

OH Sega Dreamcast, How I love you! Back in 1999 I remember proudly walking to the mall in the rain to pre-order you from KB Toys. You were the best system after NES that I've ever, and still do, owned. You were the First of the generation, and honestly the best in my opinion. You beat the PS2, Gamecube, and the Xbox to Market. You also were the first console to have online play, by the built in 56k modem. I only wish it would have lasted a little longer.



Your Launch titles were freaking awesome too. I remember being thrilled at Sonic Adventure, Hydro Thunder, Crazy Taxi, Ready to Rumble Boxing, and Many others. The Fighting freak in me was Super excited for Arcade Perfect ports of PowerStone, Soul Calibur, and Marvel vs. Capcom. I wasn't even a huge fan of sports games, But I got all the 2K series, and played them a lot! Don't even get me started on Skies of Arcadia, or Jet Set Radio!

With support from Midway, Capcom, Eidos, Sega themselves and Many others, I don't see why your life was so short. Sega had a hit, and was making bank though. But I guess some bigshot at Sega wanted to focus on Software only, so you died a little pre-maturely.

So, may you have a Happy Birthday Sega Dreamcast! You may no longer be produced or supported, but to steal a line from one of your Launch titles:

"THE SOUL STILL BURNS!"

Joseph Rock (main story)

Writer- Ivan Brandon

Art- Tom Darenick

Synopsis- Corporal Rock is put as a second in command with a Unit. They are to rescue a senator, without being seen. The problem being, it's in a region that's run by an insurgent force, and they have no intel. They must Extract the senator alive. However, a few Super-beings may make that impossible.

Let's try to keep this Spoiler free, shall we?

As an Army Brat myself,(Dad was based in Fort Bragg at one point, and various other places) I've heard of Sargent Rock. I have never read any of his tales however, so this is all new stuff to me. I have to say it's not your typical Super-hero fare. I found myself actually worried about the members of Rock's unit as they get dropped into a war zone. Something about the way it was presented made it feel a lot more real.

The main story sort of jumps around a bit. You start off with Rock in a trench with explosions going on. Then it jumps to his superiors setting him up for a possible promotion and with his Unit. Then the next thing you see is some un-identified Super-people Fighting, and blowing stuff up. I really liked the Dialog a lot! They used a lot of Military Language, with little asterisks to explain what a SAW or what a GOOSE is. I thought that brought some Authenticity to it.

ART-
I have to say I really liked the art in this. Well constructed troops, backgrounds and effects. The colors were very effective as well, they have a washed out look to them. It works well for the overall look of it. It's really action packed. Lots of explosions and crazy para-trooping cool GI Joe stuff. I still have no idea who the super people causing all the property damage are, but I assume we'll find out soon!



Navy Seals (back-up Story)

Writer- Jonathan Vankin

Art- Phil Winslade

Synopsis- "No Boots on the ground." Means Send in the Navy Seals. A tactical team of four infiltrate a sniper's tower after getting shot at.

This story so far is kind of interesting. You get to know the Four Seals as people first, which is great. They're names are Ice, Tracker, Reno, and Litzau. The Dialog is pretty darn awesome. Again, there's a lot of military language in this story too.

ART-
The art in this story is ok. The characters are drawn pretty well. Their movements and the camera angles are really great. My main complaint with the art, is there are a lot of panels with No Background what so ever. Not sure if that was a stylistic choice , but in some of these panels the Seals are just kinda Floating. Another artistic quirk is in most of the panels the Seals look a little too similar to one another.

SHOULD I GET THIS???

There's plenty of Opportunity to tell military stories! I assume that Men of War is Much like DC's own "All-Star Western" In that it's an anthology for all of their military stuff. Some of my favorite movies are military based. I believe it can work. It also seems there are Super-beings in the Sargent Rock section. So that's something I've never seen before! (Outside of the Hulk Movies)

PER STORY SCORE : First story 9/10 Second story 5/10

OVERALL FINAL SCORE: 8/10

Justice League #1 Review

The New 52 is upon us. What does DC comics have in store for us? We'll Soon Find out!



The variant cover by David Finch, Richard Friend,& Peter Steigerwald

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inks: Scott Williams
Cost: $3.99

Synopsis:

We Start off with Batman being chased by Gotham's Swat team, and Batman is chasing a monster, all on rooftop. He finally catches up to the beast and then out of nowhere glowing Green Firetruck hits the Monster. Enter Green Lantern with the line, "Batman? You're REAL?"
Batman and Green Lantern hit it off just fine. They already hate each other. Green Lantern is a brash and cocky type of person and Batman is cold, and calculating. There's a running gag in this issue that Batman has no powers, and he's just some guy in a Bat suit.

The Monster they were both chasing is found in the sewer. It's trying to attach a box ( a Mother Box, which I hope will get explained later) to a wall. It then spots GL and Bats. It Kamikazes and tries to take them with it. It's Death Cry is "For Darksied!" Batman then says the Box-like device looks alien. Green Lantern then responds with "Maybe this is all connected to the guy from Metropolis". Neither character has met Superman yet.

Cut to a scene with Victor Stone playing some High School Football, and doing exceptionally well. His Father, Apparently Works with Meta-Humans, and is never around to be part of Vic's Life. GL and Bats fly right over the school. When they land Green Lantern thinks he's mr. bigstuff, and can handle this Superman. Superman Punches him out and says "I don't handle Easy." Then he looks at Batman and says "So.. What can you do?"

ART:
Jim Lee's art is exceptional as always. I do have to kind of wonder why it is that Superman's suit is armored... But I honestly don't care. I don't really think it's his best work. But it's still pretty good!

SHOULD I GET THIS ???

As a new reader I guess it's pretty accessible. You meet 3 of the big guns. Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman. There's an intrigue about who or what a Darksied is... oh and there's Plenty of Action going on over well drawn panels.

As a Fan of previous incarnations of the Justice League, it seems a little Old hat. It's still ok.. but a lot of the mysteries you already know about. Hopefully they pick it up with the next issue, but they'll probably introduce more of the characters.

Overall I have to say, I kind of like this treatment of these characters. They seem more like People with Powers, than people who let the powers define who they are. I guess that comes down to the writing, but I like it.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10