Last year, the Deadpool shinanigans began on preview night of San Diego Comic-Con. A “leak” and fake website hinted that Activision’s next Marvel property was going to be Hit-Monkey. This red herring was quickly proven wrong the next day when Deadpool took Comic Con by storm, announcing himself that he would be starring in a game developed by the team behind Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron from High Moon Studios.

From there, Deadpool wrote his own press releases promoting his single player adventure that would have appearances from Wolverine and a few of the more scantily clad X-Men. And what came from Deadpool was something not many would expect, a good game.

The Long

Deadpool has a lot to overcome as a game. First, it has to take on the stigma of being a licensed title which is something that can still sadly go either way right now. For every Wolverine: Origins or Batman: Arkham Asylum, there is still a X-Men Destiny or Thor: God of Thunder. Deadpool also faces a problem that games like X-Men Destiny and Thor did not have to deal with: Name Recognition.

As much as the comics community knows who Deadpool is, he isn’t known by the mainstream community at large. Right off the bat, there is an uphill battle on sales that Deadpool must deal with. But, for those who either recognize the Merc with the Mouth or have someone turn their attention towards the schizophrenic red and black clad, potty mouthed lunatic, there is a very pleasant surprise waiting for them.

For the past few years, I have gone down to Comic Con and there is a girl I have hooked up with the past few years down there. We get along great and keep in touch throughout the year and like clockwork we end up together in San Diego. I could totally see dating her. The problem is I am from Massachusetts and she lives in San Francisco. – LongDistanceTrouble

Long distance is tricky. The end.

How is that for insight and guidance? You’re welcome. Thank me later.

But seriously, there are so many nuances to every long distance romance that it would be tough to find a stock answer that worked for all scenarios.

The final season of Spartacus: War of the Damned begins January 25^th on Starz.  That’s tonight! We left off last season with Spartacus and his merry band of rebels facing the full might of the Roman legion, which are not against pulling shenanigans.

I was more than happy to sit down with Manu Bennett, who plays the undefeated Gaul and Spartacus BFF, Crixus.  Manu was passionate, assured, and especially candid as he spoke about his former co-star Andy Whitfield and what awaits Crixus in the new season. Generous to a fault, he also shared some spoils of war. (Note: This interview contains spoilers.)

The Flickcast: “Be Here Now” is emblazoned on your shirt.  Can you talk about why the phrase “Be Here Now” is important to you?

Manu Bennett: “Be Here Now” was a tattoo Andy [Whitfield] had on his forearm when he was going through his cancer treatment.  There’s a documentary that’s going to be coming out soon.

Rather than not being in the know about what happened to Andy, this documentary is for people who are really interested in the show and really fell in love with Andy and I know there’s so many people out there who did. I’m sure Andy would have liked everyone to go and watch this documentary to see what cancer can destroy in this life.

How do you follow a debut novel that was named one of Time magazine’s best books of the year? For Charles Yu the answer is Sorry Please Thank You, a breezy but fascinating collection of short stories.

In an interview during San Diego Comic-Con 2012, Yu revealed that the transition from writing his popular and widely praised book, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, to the short story format of Sorry Please Thank You was challenging. The author also admitted that not all of the stories turned out the way he had planned.

“Sometimes you write something and it’s just not what you thought it was going to be,” he said. Even so, Yu is pleased with the final product and readers will be too.

The collection of stories transports readers from futuristic earth to virtual reality and even into space. In every time and location the characters are searching for the same things: happiness and love. The fundamental nature of these desires helps keep Yu’s stories grounded even as some of them veer off into the more obscure and strange (an alien’s guide to Earth families, for example).

As of this moment, the PR on Deadpool may be the most fun of any comic book game for any journalist to cover. Instead of the same standard PR blips from developers or agencies, Deadpool (or someone who is doing a heck of a job impersonating him) is doing his own promotions for the game. With the Deadpool movie in development hell, it only makes sense that the poor guy would have the free time to handle gaming PR.

Most recently, Deadpool announced that he would be including Domino of X-Force fame in his upcoming Mature rated game. The two characters are quite familiar with each other, both being long time associates to both Wolverine and Cable, as well as both being members of recent incarnations of X-Force together at one time. And with Deadpool being (a self described) ladies man, it only makes sense that he would invite one of the finest pieces of Marvel comic booty into his game.