WoW and Toby

WoW surpassed 2M?  There goes my theory that MMO's aren't mass market.  I'm kind of in shock.

And I'll try not to get too excited to hear that Toby Gard is back on Tomb Raider.  Since I am apparently one of the only people in the world who loved Galleon, it might be difficult.  On the other hand, Toby isn't known for shipping games on time and Eidos is claiming that they're going to give this new Tomb Raider all the time it needs so I'm guessing we won't be seeing it for a couple of years anyhow.  Also, Crystal Dynamics made the terrible mistake of allowing Andrei Pokrovsky to leave them a few years ago, (after which he joined Treyarch and kicked insane amounts of ass) which could be a sign that there's something fundamentally wrong there somehow.  Keep your awesome programmers happy, people.

Some people may have written Tomb Raider off completely.  I was talking to a Crystal Dynamics guy at the last GDC and he wasn't sure Eidos would be able to resurrect Lara.  I think it's always possible to resurrect a dead franchise.  Spider-Man is actually an example of that:  after the Clone saga, when Ben Reilly replaced Peter Parker as Spider-Man in the comic series, sales of Spider-Man comics were mediocre.  Killing off Ben Reilly, bringing back Peter Parker, denying that whole clone thing ever happened, didn't seem to help.  A lot of people considered Spider-Man pretty much over.  And then a certain movie came out...

(I'm hoping Batman Begins will do the same for Batman.  It's getting pretty good reviews.  Fingers crossed.)

Side note:  I have read a metric assload of Spider-Man comics, and I actually liked the clone saga.  It may have been sick and wrong to bring that sort of Alan Moore Swamp Thing sensibility to the happy-and-bright Spider-Man series (Peter Parker's shock at finding out he's a clone mirroring the Swamp Thing's shock at finding out he's a vegetable)...but I like sick and wrong.  J. M. deMatteis is, in fact, my 4th favorite Spider-Man writer, after Lee, Bendis, and Straczynski.

Comments

[Factory]

Surely Spiderman's first resurgence was when McFairlane was drawing him?

[Anne]

The McFarlane run was interesting for the artwork. That's all I remember about it . . . that and the start of the forty different, "unique" collector's edition covers for every issue of everything Marvel published at the time (DC, too).

The clone saga was interesting and fairly memorable. I also liked some of the Eddie Brock/Venom stuff, despite the fact that so much more could have been done with it.

[Jamie Fristrom]

McFarlane was before deMatteis.

[Jeffool]

If you 'really' wanna know what happened with that whole Clone Saga business, read the 35 part interview. http://www.newcomicreviews.com/GHM/specials/LifeOfReilly/ Yes, seriously. And it's actually interesting and well written. While I'm a fan of messing with characters, I think it (The Clone Saga) went a bit too long. But hey, what do I know? One thing I've always loved about comic books is their ability to have crossovers that have a massive scale, yet have each title show a participant's view of it all. Everything going on concurrently.

I loved the X-Cutioners Song and thought it far too short. But I was a huge New Mutants/X-Force fan, and largely a Necieza fan. And don't even get me started on the Infinity crossovers. Genius! Though I always wanted an ongoing set in a post-apocalyptic universe like Age of Apocalypse or the Dark Knight books. What if...? was always the closest to that. Yeah, I was raised on Marvel.

And to almost be on topic, I think it's quite possible to bring back a franchise, just make it good again. It'll either come back or at least have a decent burial.

[Despayre]

If there's anything Marvel does well it's taking weak storylines and playing them out far too long :p

Not that DC was any better, but how Marvel loves silly extended 'mystery' storylines (Cable anyone)? Thats one of the reasons I stopped reading the 3526272 X books..that and their sudden fascination with anime inspired art..ugh..

It's definitely possible to revive a series however..It looks like Batman Begins could revive the batman series..whether thats good or bad remains to be seen, but I'm glad we finally got a second good batman movie.

[leif]

You havent been reading batman comics for the past few years, did you?

It'll do fine even without the movie.

[Telka!]

*Warning: Slight rant*

Have you checked Gamerankings lately for Batman?

It has not been getting that good of reviews (a few sites have given it 80's) but it seems the biggest thing that is preventing it from getting better scores is the fact that people are calling it "Splinter Cell for Dummies".

I've checked it out and I think it's pretty good. Apparently the "hardcore" are not happy with the locking on systems though and are doing nothing but complaining that it is not challenging enough for them.

To them, I give a huge raspberry. Quit thinking that the gaming universe revolves around you only and that maybe they wanted anyone who saw the movie to enjoy the game. And not all viewers of the movie are hardcore.

*phew* Thanks for letting me get that out.

I agree though that Batman will do just fine...

Oh, and I really liked the movie too. :D

[Despayre]

Just for clarification, I meant the Batman movie series. I should have been more specific, sorry about that.

[Dave]

You put Straczynski and Bendis above Roger Stern and Peter David? *AND* you enjoyed the Clone Saga? And to think that until this point in time I thought you were a somewhat intelligent human being. :)

I've actually read two metric assloads of Spider-Man comics; so I believe I have a solid foundation for my comments.

[M to the Vizzah]

I've read maybe three or four dozen issues of Spider-Man and the only one I liked was:

http://www.spiderfan.org/cgi-bin/cover.pl?80123,spiderman,017.jpg

... and that was probably because I love Rick Leonardi's pencils. Of course I own a shitload because I grew up in the McFarlane drunkedness of pre-Image but yada yada.

m.