Avid comic readers know there’s one undeniable truth to any crossover or event featuring Marvel’s merry mutants: prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best. For every Age of Apocalypse there’s a Utopia, Necrosha or Schism just waiting to drag you down. Tentatively, I dove into last year’s X-Men: Battle of the Atom crossover to see which side of the fence I fell on; the initial fan feedback was divisive, to say the least.

A 10-chapter arc weaving through X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men and All-New X-Men and bookended by two one-shots; Battle of the Atom starts with the original, time-displaced team of X-Men deciding (arguing) whether or not they should leave the present day and return to their era. But why settle on past and present when you can have not one but two different X-Men teams from the future join in?

It’s one of those things you would have figured would be a bigger deal but two weeks later and there hasn’t been a peep heard about it. Maybe I am running in the wrong circles or it really is telling of the popularity of Disney Infinity (or lack there of) but this should have been bigger news to the gaming and geek worlds.

Marvel has unleashed a trailer on their YouTube channel that gives a pretty good indication of a certain star spangled super hero making his way alongside the cast of Disney Infinity. Without getting tacky and talking about the “infinite” possibilities, it is pretty cool to hear this as one of the more public facing interactions between Disney and Marvel since the acquisition.

For those who don’t know, Disney Infinity is a video game that uses smart toy technology similar to that of Skylanders where players place figures on an e-reader stand which causes the character to appear in game as well. This upcoming expansion of characters will be one of the first times where a player can have Marvel characters interacting with those of Disney in Disney worlds as well.

So far, Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters University and The Incredibles are all a part of Disney Infinity but now we are waiting for the moment where we can have Captain America go head to head with Darth Vader. Come on Disney. You own it all. There is no reason not to make it happen. It is literally the option to print money…

‘Tis the season and we at The Flickcast along with the Whiskey and Waffles team want to point everyone in the direction of one of our top gift recommendations. Every month, WallE and I get a Loot Crate shipped to our HQ and proceed to compete over the items inside. The reason we can’t share is because the stuff inside is just too cool to spread the wealth.

What we recommend is that people make sure to buy each of their loved ones a subscription which starts at $13.37 a month (yes, their price is “LEET” so you know these guys know what they are doing). If you head to www.lootcrate.com/whiskeyandwaffles and use the code “whiskeyandwaffles” you’ll get a 10% discount.

As mentioned, WallE and I cannot share. So that lead us to create the Loot Crate War. Last month, we competed for zombie related swag. November was all about celebration between the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who and the birth of a new console generation with the PlayStation 4 and XBox One launching.

The Avengers has come and gone, and now we get to see Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) dealing with the trauma he apparently experienced in New York. He has insomnia, and it strains both his work on the latest Iron Man suit as well as his relationship with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). His bodyguard Happy (Jon Favreau) is now head of security for Stark Industries. And, all around the world, there’s broadcasts from a strange terrorist figure named “The Mandarin” (Ben Kingsley).

The movie opens with Stark recounting a New Year’s Eve party way back in 1999. He’s at a conference in Bern, trying to bed a buxom botantist, Maya (Rebecca Hall) before the year’s turnover. He’s interrupted by pimply geek Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), who’s trying to start a think tank and wants Stark’s help. Stark blows him off, and if the use of Guy Pearce didn’t already suggest it, Stark states outright that it was the beginning of trouble.

Thirteen years later, Aldrich shows up at Stark Industries, again seeking support, though he does seem more interested in rubbing everyone’s nose in his success. He has created a new whatsit kind of technology called “Extremis” that allows the brain to regenerate tissue…and, somehow, make the patients melt things with their hands. (Dr. Curt Conners from the latest Spiderman films is going to be smacking his head with his tail when the inevitable crossover comes.)

Along with all the other cool stuff like movies, TV shows and new, geeky gadgets we get to talk about here at The Flickcast, comics are another one of our favorites. So, when a new, interesting comic preview is availbale for us to bring to you, we do just that.

This time that comic preview is from Marvel and it’s their upcoming book Marvel NOW! – X-MEN #1. In the comic:

“Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Rogue & Psylocke redefine what it means to be a Child of the Atom when an old enemy shows up at the X-Men’s door, seeking asylum from an ancient evil come back to Earth. Meanwhile, Jubilee has come home, and she’s brought with her an orphaned baby who might hold the key to the Earth’s survival…or its destruction!

With an imminent alien invasion and an eons-spanning war between brother and sister around the corner, Storm steps up and puts together a team to protect the child and stop a new threat that could destroy all life in the Marvel Universe!”

Sounds cool, right? Click through for some preview pages for the comic. Look for X-Men #1, written by Brian Wood with art by Olivier Coipel, to arrive in comic shops on May 29.