What characters were rip-offs of others? Are comics and pro wrestling actually tied together? Is the story from the comic better than the story in the movie? Just what the heck was happening in comics in the 90’s?

These are some questions any reasonable human being who contributes a portion of their weekly salary to the funny books may ask. The Flickcast alumni Jonathan ‘Wally’ Weilbaecher and I join forces with Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles to answer these and more.

With regulars Joe Slepski of The Joe on Joe podcast, Pablo Romero-Estevez and Alan ‘Sizzler’ Kistler of Crazy Sexy Geeks and some guests like Lucha Underground’s Joey Ryan and The Flickcast co-founder Matt Raub, we haven’t come to many conclusions but we have had a ton of fun arguing our way there.

After a brief hiatus Doctor Who returns this week to comic books stores, this time courtesy of Titan Comics. Doctor Who‘s history in comics is pretty much as storied as the Television version, starting a year after the show debuted. The long-running UK published Doctor Who Magazine has been running comic strips based on the show since 1979.

In the US, however, the Doctor didn’t see any four-color adventures until the mid-1980s with Marvel Comics reprinting some of the British strips. That was short-lived and it wasn’t until 2007 that an American published comic book was made available. Now the US gets the best of both worlds with Titan Comics being a British publisher, but with full distribution in the US. As if to reward us for our eternal patience this week sees the debut of two new Doctor Who comics with a third on the way soon. Here’s a look at the first two titles.

With Sam Keith recently tapped to relaunch a remastered version of his cult hit The Maxx through IDW, it only makes sense that the publisher would try to bring the famed creator in on another one of their franchises. While licensed titles with most companies fall flat, IDW is one of the few to take them and run to success by staying true to the original content but working well within the confines of comics. It ends up seeming like a natural pairing to put the man who created a purple clad giant with perpetual middle fingers that roamed the outback to take on one of the most comically messed up invasion forces ever.

Mars Attacks: First Born takes place in the aftermath of the failed Martian invasion. With the world devastated, people must begin to rebuild but the Martians have left something behind in a secluded neighborhood. Found by a group of kids, there is a Martian infant left amongst the rubble and the aftermath that follows it. The miniseries was written by Chris Ryall and coplotted by Sam Keith and Ryall with Keith taking sole duties on the covers and artwork.

Trailers for comic books? Yes, and really cool ones! These books were released last week from Dynamite Entertainment and are selling fast. Get to your local comic book shop immediately and pick a copy or two of each.

Buy one for you and buy one for a friend. To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook or visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com/.

Dynamite was founded in 2004 and is home to several best-selling comic book titles and properties, including The Boys, The Shadow, Vampirella, Warlord of Mars, Bionic Man, A Game of Thrones, and more. Dynamite owns and controls an extensive library with over 3,000 characters (which includes the Harris Comics and Chaos Comics properties), such as Vampirella, Pantha, Evil Ernie, Smiley the Psychotic Button, Chastity, Purgatori, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt.

Normally, we are too busy to be able to come back and do reviews on DLC for game,s but as you saw in my recent review of the Deadpool game, I really enjoyed it and was looking for a reason to go back. That reason came from a download code for the Merc with a Mouth map pack.

For $2.99 on the PlayStation 3 or 240 Microsoft Points on the XBox 360, players can download two additional maps for the game’s challenge mode along with two new costumes. Spoiler alert: This DLC pack was actually a preorder bonus from Gamestop upon the original Deadpool release so if you already did that, then you probably don’t need to make this purchase… or read this review… so… sorry!

So first off, let’s talk about costumes. For some reason which isn’t ever really discussed, the costume options are only available in the Infinite mode which is a wave based level of the challenge modes. Still not entirely sure why these special outfits are only available in the challenge mode when it is just a skin swap over the character so keep that in mind if you didn’t go through (or like me just didn’t spend a lot of time) in the Challenge mode. The D-Pooly costume resembles Deadpool’s selfstyled MC look while the X-Force outfit represents the grey and black from when Deadpool joined up on Wolverine’s black ops team… but they are only available to the challenge mode.

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.

After Scribblenauts Unlimited came to the Wii U with a fairly soft launch, a lot of people wondered what might be next, if at all, for the series. Aside from new puzzles, what was there really left you could do for Scribblenauts that hadn’t already been done with the customizability of Scribblenauts Unlimited? I mean, it has “unlimited” in the title. The answer of course is rather fitting, a comic book crossover.

Whenever publishers in comics are in a sales dip, they crossover a more popular character into another series to give it a sales boost. But why stop at just a Batman Scribblenauts or a Scribblenauts Metropolis? WB Games and 5th Cell took the whole DC Universe and brought it over to the Scribblenauts world in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure. In addition to giving the powers of various DC heroes and villains to Maxell, the trailer below indicates that players will be able to actually play as various DC characters in the game as well in the puzzle solving adventure.

After the recent sad news with layoffs happening at High Moon Studios following the completion of the Deadpool game which is set for June 25th release for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, there was a PR blip that went out late yesterday getting into detail with the Deadpool preorder incentives. Obviously, the team behind the Deadpool PR is still working hard at keeping Deadpool at bay when he gets his hands on their press releases.

Below, you’ll be able to check out the list of presale incentives from GameSpot and Amazon for those who are picking up this Marvel merc at the budget price of $49.99. Make sure to check out all the new screens below as well!

intimidated invited Activision Publishing, Inc. and High Moon Studios to make a video game starring Marvel’s most Marvel-ous character, me. And you being a gamer of unquestionable good taste wish to pre-order that game. Well I say bravo – you deserve some awesome rewards for putting your trust in Deadpool.

Let’s face it, none of the stuff we put up here could be considered of life or death importance. We’re all about entertainment and fun and it should be that way most of the time.

However, when something comes along of real-world importance, actually deals with life and death and could potentially help or make a difference in someone else’s life, we feel duty-bound to bring it to you. Today that something takes the form of comic book donations to the Children’s Hospital of Boston.

Writer Adri Cowan is taking matters into her own hands and doing something to help the children affected by the recent tragedy in Boston. Said Cowan:

“. . . I want to help. In the very least, I’d like to distract the traumatized, the children, the people whose lives are going to be changed forever, regardless of limbs lost or physical impairments. So I asked my friends at local comic shops and publishers to help me bring kids-friendly comic books and books to Boston Children’s Hospital, and anywhere else that needs them.”

She will be taking the donated comics to the hospital on Wednesday, April 24th. Until that time, donations can be made by emailing Adri at: adri (dot) cowan (at) gmail (dot) com or getting in touch with here via Twitter @adrileya.

We think this is a very worthwhile cause and we wish her the best of luck.

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.