A year and a half ago, we came home from San Diego Comic Con and were given the chance to review the XBox Live Arcade rerelease of one of our top games of the previous decade with Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  The game was an instant hit and was quickly brought over to the PlayStation 3 as well.

It’s not surprising that soon after, seeing the game’s tremendous success, that Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With a super stylized trailer, the hype hasn’t died down. Even last week at release, it was almost impossible for players to get a hold of the Special Edition of the game, a problem not usually seen in retail anymore.

As we have talked about with our previous hands-on experience, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 brings the series’ classic feel and action back with a shiny new coat of graphical paint and effects that players expect and demand.

Gameplay:

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds doesn’t change the formula that brought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 so much success. The game relies on single round matches between two 3 on 3 teams. Players have three basic attacks of increasing strength, their special attack button, and two assist buttons. These assist buttons can be used to either call in teammates for a quick attack or to switch the character the player is in control of for the fight.

As players throw more attacks and successfully defend against their opponents, they increase their combo meter which builds at the bottom of the screen to unleash Hyper Combos. These hyper combos are special moves that can deal tremendous damage if successful.

This simple control scheme allows for all levels of players to enjoy the game. Expert players will learn advanced combos, juggling and snap backs to eliminate their opponents while newer players will be able to feel like they are setting off tremendous attacks even by just button mashing.

It is an interesting dynamic compared to other fighting games where experience will almost always prevail. While it may be frustrating for an “expert” to get beaten by a lucky combination from a “newbie”, it also makes the game more exciting that outcomes aren’t always so predetermined in multiplayer.

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With just a month away from its release date, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds is still dropping announcement bombs all over the fighting game world. With members of the final roster still to be revealed, Capcom announced two new characters this past weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Making her debut to the Capcom fighting genre is Jean Grey, better known as Phoenix. With the power to literally rip worlds in half, the Phoenix force is considered one of the strongest entities in the Marvel universe. Now, the Phoenix comes to the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 arena with the cosmic power to take on man and immortal alike. Take a peek below at the new footage of Jean Grey in action, including her hypercombo Dark Phoenix finish.

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Following tons of casting and recasting news, X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer contacted AICN and revealed tons of juicy tidbits about the highly anticipated film. Of course, we’re going to share them with you right here to save you the trouble of clicking that link.

The film will take place in the fitting time of the 1960′s, with civil rights being of high concern at the time and the obvious parallels between the racial and mutant struggles. In addition, Singer implied that Vaughn will also be utilizing James Bond type technology from that era in the film.

X-Men: First Class will follow the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender)as they plan the futures of mutant kind.  Xavier will not be in a wheelchair in the beginning of the film, but we will witness him losing the use of his legs.

The antagonists of the film will be the Hellfire Club which will include Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw and January Jones as Emma Frost. On a surprising note, he stated that we will not be seeing Jean Grey or Cyclops. Unsurprisingly, he announced that we can expect tons more casting news in the next couple of days.

Singer also explained that even though the costumes in the film will be more “comic booky” than previous films, the film is shying away from the story written in the comic after which the film is named.

Do you think that it’s the right move to delve deep into little known comic book characters, while not utilizing the pre-existing lore? Can an X-men story exist without Jean Grey and Cyclops?

As we’ve done previously, we’ve got a preview of the brand new Marvel motion comic Astonishing X-Men: Gifted. Featuring the talents of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, this project offers fans a cool way to enjoy a great comic story on their favorite portable device like an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Even though I’m a fan of reading paper comics and I hope they don’t go away any time soon, this is just another way in which new fans can potentially be brought into the fold. Which is a good thing. Plus, with this kind of story and the talent involved, you have to expect this to be a pretty big success for Marvel. Hopefully, that will mean more comics will be getting the “motion” treatment.

So, check out this preview and enjoy it. Also, as we agreed to do in order to bring you cool things like this, following is Marvel’s “official” info about this project and this preview.

Marvel is proud to unveil your first look at episode 2 of the Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic! Based on the acclaimed story by superstars Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and John Cassaday (Captain America), the X-Men are faced with a mysterious new villain and a possible cure for the mutant gene! Now Cyclops, Wolverine and all your favorite mutants must face the greatest threats of their lives and, before it’s all done, experience one of the most jaw-dropping moments in Marvel history!

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March 7th, 2007. A date that will live in comics infamy. The day that America lost its heart and soul. Captain America, after surrendering at the end of the superhero Civil War, walked up the steps of a New York Courthouse and was gunned down in a massive conspiracy orchestrated by his original nemesis, the Red Skull.

It made national mainstream news. The death of a comic book hero was covered by everyone from Yahoo’s front page to the Daily Show and from ABC News to CNN. For a moment in time, a nation mourned the death of a fictional character. Eventually, people got back to their everyday lives.

Many quickly forgot as they brushed off the death of a fictional character. Others took longer to recover because an ideal, the embodiment of their nation, a symbol they had looked up to for as long as they could remember, was gone. What might have made it easier for them was the cliche’ that characters don’t really stay dead in comics.

With a few exceptions (Most likely because the deaths have been so recent), this holds true. Two of the best examples of this are DC’s death of Superman and Marvel’s death of Jean Grey. The former made national news in the 1990′s and had everyone catching the collector’s bug and clamoring for the comic. Issues which priced at $1.25 were bought in by the caseload only to be resold for $50 to $100 an issue.

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