When it was announced that Matthew Vaughn was leaving the director’s chair for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the geek community felt an inescapable fear that things might be falling apart. Even the seemingly good news that original X-Director Bryan Singer was coming back didn’t seem to dissuade the growing fear that Fox was once again messing up the X-Men.

Then the online nerd populous started putting two and two together. If the next film was going to tackle one of the most famous comic book time travel stories, and the director was the guy who made the first two great X-Men movies, would we be getting a giant cross generational X-Men X-travaganza?

Well, the answer seems to be a resounding yes, and according to the twitter account of Bryan Singer himself it keeps getting better:

Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage &@shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast – thank you @BrettRatner for letting them live!

When it was rereleased on XBox Live Arcade three years ago, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was the hottest title for fighting game fans, even nine years after its release. What came next was the most hyped fighting game in recent memory with Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It’s no surprise that Capcom would take the popularity of the franchise as well as the recent publicity of Marvel because of the success of the Avengers and release two of the games that started it all.

Coming in September of this year to both the PlayStation Network and XBox Live Arcade is Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, a two for one deal with both Marvel Super Heroes and the first Marvel vs. Capcom. Before the X-Men crossed paths against Street Fighter, Marvel pitted its own heroes and villains against each other in Marvel Super Heroes. After the crossover success of X-Men vs. Street Fighter though, Marvel picked its heaviest hitters and brought them against Capcom’s all-star lineup in Marvel vs. Capcom.

It’s been year since the release of a quality X-Men title. Not since X-Men Legends and its sequel has there really been a game that captured the essence of Marvel’s band of merry mutants, especially with the pitiful movie tie-in titles that have been released.

When X-Men: Destiny was announced by Activision and Silicon Knights, the makers of Too Human, players hoped their prayers would be answered as they would get to experience what it was like for an emerging mutant caught between the turmoil of the X-Men, Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants and the humans who seek to end the “mutant menace”.

Instead, what they got was a half handed execution that feels like a franchise cash-in rushed out in order to hit the holiday game season before the larger releases like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

People who complain that DC Comics reboot their universe too many times needs to take a look at Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe line.

Founded in 2000 with the debut of Ultimate Spider-Man, the Ultimate universe was always intended as a continuity free entry point into the Marvel Universe. Characters and origins were updated to feel as if they were created in the 2000’s, and many of the movie properties of Marvel took several ideas and storylines from the Ultimate Marvel universe. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the Ultimate Universe became confusing and has been rebooted not once, but twice in ten years! Let me say that again, twice in ten years. Even with all the odds stacked against it, Ultimate Comics X-Men #1 turns out to be a decent issue.

Peter Parker, the Spider-Man, is dead. Wolverine, Cyclops, Professor X, and Magneto are also in the ground. This ain’t your papa’s Marvel Universe. The issue begins with a scene that could have been ripped out of an X-Men movie. Karen Grant a.k.a. Jean Grey, who has changed her name for safety reasons, visits the parents of a little girl who has just discovered she is a mutant. Karen discusses options with the mother while the father of the little girl is upstairs with her.

At Comic Con, the Flickcast got our first hands on with X-Men: Destiny to mixed reviews from the team. While the game is still some time away, there lies a lot of potential for the game to take a turn for the better or the worse. When we had the chance to talk to Denis Dyack, who also headed up past projects such as Too Human, it helped sooth some of our concerns. Now, with PAX this weekend, the team at Silicon Knights gives us some further insight into the game with its new Powers trailer and a host of new screen shots.

In the new X-Men: Destiny screens, our main characters Aimi, Grant and Adrian can be seen in costumes different from their original character designs. The most notable are Grant fighting alongside the Juggernaut in similar wardrobe and Aimi who is wearing what looks like a New Mutants style uniform. This could be a sign that over the course of gameplay, certain decisions will not only change the world in front of the characters but the appearance of the characters themselves.

In the Powers trailer below, all three power sets that can be chosen by any of the game’s three characters are seen in action. At Comic Con, we chose the Density Control which used close by rock and asphalt to create a melee focused set, giving players an experience similar to that of the X-Man Rockslide. Energy Projection looks to be more of a sniper class where players will have the opportunity to take out enemies from a distance, playing more like Cyclops. Shadow Matter looks like it combines a mix of the two giving players some distance attacks and other close up enhancements.

Take a look at the trailer and screens below. As always, stick to the Flickcast for more on X-Men: Destiny as it approaches its September 27th release for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Recently, we got the chance to get hands on with X-Men: Destiny for the first time. In our demo we got to check out the first level of the game where we had the opportunity to choose between the game’s three possible protagonists Aimi, Grant and Adrian. When a massive Purifier attack hits downtown San Francisco, the player must also decide on the spot which of the three power sets they would like to equip their character with.

The early level surprisingly has a lot of conversation within it as players meet members of both the X-Men and Brotherhood who are both fighting against the Purifiers. Because of the noise in the Activision event, we couldn’t really hear the dialogue at the time but the gist we got was that both sides were already actively beginning to recruit this new mutant to their side.

X-Men: Destiny plays much like a standard 3D street brawler with the added bonus of mutant powers. There are your basic light, heavy, special and grab attacks along with blocking and dodging mechanics as expected. The gameplay itself was fun but the story possibilities are definitely the most intriguing part for us.

We cover a lot of things here at The Flickcast and one of them is comics. Sadly, we don’t get to do as much comics coverage as we would like but we still try to bring you cool stuff when we see it.

Case in point this time is a preview for Marvel’s upcoming series Ultimate Comics X-Men with issue number one. From writer Nick Spencer and artist Paco Medina comes a story featuring Iceman, Kitty Pride and the Human Torch “who discover the true history of the x-gene as the divide between Mankind and Mutantkind grows deeper than ever before.”

“Who are the X-Men and how will they handle the fallout of this universe shattering discovery?” That’s just something you’re going to have to find out for yourself when the first issue arrives.

Judging from the preview images, it looks to be a very cool series. We’re looking forward to it.

Check out the preview after the jump. Look for Ultimate Comics X-Men in comic book stores on September 14th.

The X-Men have potentially been one of the greatest comic book to video game franchises possible. Looking back to the classic arcade days, X-Men was a title that many gamers in their twenties pumped handfuls of quarters into to no end.

After that, pickings were fairly slim until the X-Men Legends games came out, followed by another drought until Wolverine: Origins, one of the few video game movie tie ins that was not only good, but ended up surpassing the quality of the film it was based off of. The X-Men seemingly would be perfect for the video game world with their plethora of both compelling characters and wide variety of powers to play with. But, as seen from title’s like Arcade’s Revenge, not everyone can seemingly get the franchise right.

Take a peek at Silicon Knight’s attempt at the X-Men franchise with X-Men: Destiny. Destiny looks great in motion as all the footage in this trailer is in-engine, not prerendered cut scenes. Each of the characters does a good job capturing the look and feel of the comics, although it is strange that the Juggernaut looks to have almost the same appearance as he did in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, a game not produced by Silicon Knights.