“You are already dead.”

If you’ve never seen Fist of the North Star, here’s where to go. This OVA is probably one of the more violent films I’ve ever seen, but it’s also a ton of fun. 

This is awesome on so many levels.

More often than not, I find myself playing catch-up with just about any form of media. I am an escapism junkie, but because I have so many loves, many things slip through my fingers. A couple of examples would be that I’m just now getting to play Dead Island on PC, and before that I finally got to watch the entirety of Season 3 of Justice League Unlimited.

To that end, one thing that commonly runs past me is comic books. Mostly it’s because comics are ridiculously time consuming, and there are events everywhere. I missed Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Fear Itself, Siege, and so forth. To become a bit more “in the know” about what’s going on in comics, I had to settle for Wikipedia. Being someone who loves to read, this sucked. What can you do, right?

Anyway, being a big fan of Venom, I decided to take a look at the newest run on the book, considering the 2003 was a complete and utter clusterscrew and I wanted to see if the new series was any better. Well, it is. I recommend it. Flash Thompson is an interesting Venom, mostly because he’s not a bad guy trying to be good with an insane mind. Rather, he’s a classic good guy or Type 1 antihero at best, but with a costume that will ultimately drive him batty if he doesn’t learn how to keep it in check.

At the same time, Marvel will probably never throw Eddie Brock under the bus. Not after the backlash that was given to Mark Millar after he wrote Venom so out of character that it ruined a fairly decent run on Marvel Knights: Spider-Man.

Side Note: To put things in perspective, Reginald Hudlin out-wrote the acclaimed Millar when it came to Spider-Man. Reginald Hudlin blows.

Anyway, the problem is that it leaves the writers without anything to do with Brock as a character, and it seems like several people have completely different ideas. The biggest reason being that some of the creative staff at Marvel either think Brock should be a misunderstood anti-villain, or just someone who eats brains. Though both sides are missing the point, I’ll get to that later. Either way, it leads to some awkward shifts for the character.

To be frank, Dan Slott’s idea for the Anti-Venom (a symbiote born of Brock’s own white blood cells and the remnants of the Venom symbiote in Brock’s bloodstream) was neat. Here we have Brock in a role where you get to focus on developing Brock as a character as opposed to the dichotomy of Brock and Symbiote, which was both overdone at that point and incredibly hard to do with anyone not named David Micheline. It’s a smarter and fresher idea to essentially make Brock similar to Venom in the respect that he has a symbiote, but make him his own man.

Well, that lasted all of a few years, as Slott had Brock sacrifice the Anti-Venom symbiote to cure all of New York. Granted, this ended up being a really good moment of character development for Brock (establishing him as someone who wasn’t a monster, but rather just had one for a costume) but ultimately stopped his “push” since being reintroduced by Slott three years prior.

So, Brock returns to try and kill the symbiotes, because he’s deemed all of them evil. Okay, this really isn’t too far out of line considering he tried to kill the Venom symbiote as Anti-Venom. Kind of a leap in logic for the character though. Thus, he kills both Hybrid and Scream. This is the problem. Why would he kill Hybrid? Scott Washington was a prison guard who was a heroic character. Oookay. Killing Donna Diego made a bit more sense though, considering she was an evil lady.

Now we have established Brock as a murderer of people who have worn symbiotes for no reason other than wearing an alien costume. I’m guessing now he’d kill Dr. Tanis Nieves if given the chance? Whatever. Anyway, he botches his attempt on killing Flash Thompson and the new Crime-Master turns him into Toxin. Afterwards, there are two problems.

1. Why is Toxin Brock acting like Venom Brock?

This bothers me. The Toxin symbiote is established as having an interesting dichotomy with its host: it speaks as its own entity, and does it audibly. Here, Eddie doesn’t have that dichotomy, which would have made things interesting. That leads me to the second point:

2. Why did Patrick Mulligan’s bus crash?

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about with the Toxin symbiote, he was originally bonded to an NYPD officer named Patrick Mulligan, who was being watched over by Spider-Man after the big Raft breakout at the beginning of Bendis’ New Avengers. It made for an interesting character. Here’s a former NYPD police officer who is attached to a monster with the disposition of a teenager. He’s divorcing his wife and walked out on his child, in fear that they would never really be able to embrace what he is now. His mini-series was very well written, and left an opening for an interesting hero. Well, guess what? Apparently he is dead now. Killed in an alley by Blackheart. No soup for you.

Listen: I like Eddie Brock. I think that any time that you have Venom about, Brock needs to be involved in some capacity simply because of who he is. At the same time, I don’t understand the need for such a swerve. The current run of Venom is a really good comic, but this seems to be its most glaring weakness. Sometimes a comic book focuses so much on the main character and his struggles that they forget the consistency of the supporting cast. Eddie Brock seems like an afterthought here, and is sort of shoehorned into the whole ordeal in a manner that makes no sense.

Beyond that, I hope this series continues to improve. My gripes thus far are pretty minor, and are isolated to two characters at best. Pick this one up, and tell me what you think.

Wouldn’t “Sonic Mace” just be an air-horn?!

-Micah C

As with any other opinionated human being, it becomes rather obvious to anyone that meets me that there are several aspects to me as a person. I’m stoic, goofy, good-natured, blunt, and so forth. At the same time, I think that personality traits are really only a part of our character. Another thing that speaks of who we are as people are the things we associate ourselves with, and whether or not we are typical or atypical. As you can tell by the image to the left of this opening paragraph, we’re going to talk Christianity and Micah.

I’m always surprised when someone shows any shock to my religious slant. Since I was 14, I’ve worn a cross around my neck. I’m named after a minor prophet who brought forth a prophecy of where Christ would be born. Then again, the buzzed hair and chin curtain with Scott Ian inspired chin hair might give people pause. I don’t know, quite frankly. Either way, I’ve never been quiet about my faith. I’ve lost friends because of it, and people judge me for it, but I don’t care. I serve God, and I’m not ashamed of that fact.

At the same time, I’m here to talk about being the typical/atypical Christian. Which one I fit into really depends on who you ask. “Christian” has a very negative connotation within modern society. Today’s popular culture and majority of people in my generation have adopted the ideas of Postmodern Existentialism. Most people believe that there is no real truth, and there are no absolutes. More or less, it’s a philosophy that allows for someone to be a child his or her entire life. What rules are there to break if there are no absolutes, right?

So, someone who believes in a divine power who wrote the laws of the universe is the modern day equivalent of the parents who came home a day early to find their kids hosting a party. I believe in right and wrong, and I don’t care what your society says about it. Thus, to those who get their party ruined, I’m your typical Christian because that’s what the modern day temper tantrum dictates.

Personally, I think that I’m one of the people who falls into the atypical category. Well, for certain reasons. Aside from my manner of dress, my odd sense of humor, and the fact that women can send me head over heels, there’s one discerning factor:

I hate Christians.

No, seriously. I despise them. Reason being? Our beliefs aren’t supposed to translate into hatred. We’re not supposed to smack people over the head with our beliefs. Our love for Christ does not translate into superiority. I hate Christians because they take what I believe to be true and they twist it to their own ends, rather than taking the gift we’ve been given and using it to help improve the lives of ourselves, and more importantly those around us.

This is why I love Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. Here is a man who took the Word of God and actually made time to understand what was going on, and why. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Letters and Papers from Prison,

“Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.”

It’s this concept of living the Word that is lost upon so many Christians today. We don’t really “get” what’s going on. Rather, we take the broad strokes of our belief and hold it high so we can elevate ourselves on pedestals. It’s a disgusting habit that was lampshaded by Brennan Manning.

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

I’m not claiming that I’m the perfect Christian. I’ve never been close to it. When I was young, my pride was aligned with the very people I’m condemning. In my early 20’s, it was my rage and stubbornness that caused me problems. These days, I’m much calmer, but I have issues with envy and lust. The combination of the two is a potent venom that shakes me to my core. There are nights where the ache of my loss is so bad that I hate myself for the fact that I will never taste the sweat of a woman I loved, and hate people around me for having that sensation at their fingertips and just letting it waste away.

That’s why I follow God though. That’s why I love a deity. That’s why I still read my Bible, sing hymns, and pray. It’s also why I work hard, and support my co-workers. It’s why I try to live a clean lifestyle. I try my best to be a good man, but when I stumble, there is always someone there to pick me up. A perfect father.

So, I guess in the end, atypical or typical really doesn’t do this part of me justice. The fact of the matter is that I’m just a complex man who loves Jesus.

Usually I close these out with some clever quip that I’ve come up with, but I feel like something from C.S. Lewis fits better. Enjoy.

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

Now we’ve reached part 2 of the whole “excess energy” process, and I figured I’d talk about another crap emotion. I hate using the term “depression” simply because I don’t suffer from clinical depression. I think too many people use it as a crutch, which just insults the people who actually suffer from it. I just call it “being bummed” or “being down.”

More often than not, I have issues with this one whenever things just seem to be going the opposite direction of where they should. For example, Saturday was supposed to be my day off. I got home, fired up Stronghold: Crusader, poured myself a rootbeer float (A&W if you’re curious) and started to relax. As I curled up for bed around 10:30 in the morning, I get a text from the other night auditor. He tells me “I need you to take my shift tonight.”

Now, considering I was planning on waking up and going to my hometown to visit my pregnant sister, I told him no. He presses the issue, then tells me he’s not showing up tonight because he wants to take his buddy to the airport, all the while telling me he’ll pay for a cab. So, I simply reply with the common sense reply from a guy who is tired.

“Give the cab money to your friend, go to work tonight. I’m going to sleep.”

Fast forward to 4 in the afternoon, and I get a text from the assistant GM. She then calls me, and begs me to come in because she’s downright scared of the other auditor not showing up. Me being a not-scumbag, I come in. At the same time, I’m super pissed about it. I had to give up a weekend with my family because some scumbag doesn’t want his buddy to take a cab.

The biggest issue with this is that I’ve got a bit of odd cerebral wiring. Once one thing goes bad, I tend to get reminded of other things that are going bad. Though every mistake and bad turn of events is a great opportunity for learning and growth, I’ve had enough of them happen to me in the past where it can be overwhelming. Thus, I get bummed out because I end up thinking of all the rough stuff, and not letting perspective take over.

So, the best way to get myself out of said rut is to make sure that I let perspective take over. Yeah, my life has been rough. I’m one of those guys who is going to have to bite and claw his way to have any success, and along the way there are going to be rough patches. That’s life. The positive is that the bad days make people stronger, tougher, and ready to take on the next challenge. I’ve been beaten up, stomped on, divorced, lost family, and been betrayed by friends, family, and religious peers. I keep doing what I’m doing because all the bad has made me a good man.

-Micah C.

Ah, winter is over. Thank the Lord above. I hate that season. Too many reminders of all the old garbage that has been ran through my life, and it’s just so cold. It’s a season that reeks of loneliness and death, so I’m glad to be done with it. At the same time, Winter is also a season where I bottle up all the excess frustration and emotion, and at some point I need to let the top fly off so I can vent.

Since this is that time, I figured I would actually write about it this year, as opposed to going on some sort of game playing binge or anything else that would be a complete and total waste of my time.

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I almost forgot that I had this blog.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’d know by now that I’m not incredibly pleased with the way that Mass Effect 3 ended. To be frank, I’m downright pissed off. I don’t really understand exactly why Bioware decided to end it the way that it did, but every single ending to the game is awful. Just downright awful.

I already have a video planned for the near future (and it will be on my Youtube channel for those interested) but I need to discuss the ending and the decision of artistic expression conflicting with fan interest.

To be quite frank, were Mass Effect 3 any other video game out there, I think that the ending would be acceptable. Say Mass Effect 3 wasn’t Mass Effect 3, but rather was a side-story to the series, or featured an entirely new cast of characters, but took place in the same universe. To be frank, the ending wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. Granted, it still wouldn’t be the ideal ending to the conflict, but ultimately would be easier to swallow from an artistic standpoint.

This is the big problem though. Video game trilogies, especially those that are RPG’s, have a certain pressure that come with them. This is magnified by a series like Mass Effect, which features the same characters and universe throughout over sixty to one hundred hours of gameplay. There are expectations that have to be met, now that the artist has decided on a series that is going to have to bend to fan request now and again.

You see, I’m not the type of person who is going to say that an artist is required to bend to the will of their fanbase. Lord knows there are plenty of developers who don’t, such as Valve. At the same time, Bioware has admitted that they want to do the fans right, and thus far have not only made concessions but made them work within the context of the game universe. People asked for the ability to romance Tali and Garrus, and they got it. Not only did they get it, but those particular romances were the best written within the second game.

It’s obvious that Bioware cares about the Mass Effect fanbase, which is why the ending of the third game is such a slap in the face. Anyone on earth can tell you that it’s rushed, and ultimately ends the trilogy in such a way that leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth. I hope that Bioware takes their time with games in the future, because people deserve to get the best out of their money. I must have put in over two hundred dollars into Mass Effect from the first game until the third, taking into account that I bought every game on release day, and also paid full price for all the DLC that I bought.

When consumers go to hotels, restaurants, movies, etc. we don’t want to have anything wreck the experience for us, especially when many of us work hard for the entertainment and pleasures that we can afford. Bioware has their artistic rights, but they willingly submitted themselves to the fanbase with Mass Effect. Thus, they needed to listen. They didn’t.

Every once in a while, something will come up that changes the way that you live your life. Something disappears, something dies, or something just explodes. To be frank, I’ve lost quite a few things in my life. I’ve lost friends, loved ones, and even a wife. They’ve either died, left me, or just stabbed me in the back. It’s the way life is sometimes. Now it has happened again.

I won’t divulge as to why it’s happened (at the request of a friend) but I feel the need to say that I am no longer part of Blistered Thumbs. My tenure is over with the site as of this week, and the chances of me ever returning are slim to none. 

Now, as I said above, I won’t tell you why I am no longer a part of the site, because I’ve been requested by a friend. To be quite frank, I could tell you, but I have no interest in creating some massive internet drama over the whole situation. What I can tell you is that I have completely and totally lost interest in video game journalism as a whole.

I wish I could say more, but all I can really talk about is how I feel about the whole situation. When I woke up and realized that I didn’t have a writing position any more, I felt different. It’s sort of like waking up in a new apartment for the first time. You realize that something is different, and you’re not really sure if it’s good or bad. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a bad thing.

At the end of the day, my days with Blistered Thumbs were great. I had the opportunity to meet some great new people, and I loved most everyone that I got to work with. I got to write some great articles, make some great videos, and do some really good podcasts with other writers who are clever individuals. I’m going to miss everyone, for certain. 

Now, this doesn’t mean I’m going to give up on writing. I still have a freelance writing gig for a newspaper, and I’m going to try and expand that freelance base to other newspapers that need combat sports coverage. I’ve also considered looking at other combat sports sites and seeing if they need another hand. It could be fun, and I love fighting. 

So, now I just need to say thank you. Thank you to Johnny, Yousif, James, Lorne, Amanda, Mike, Austin, Robert, Skitch, Dan, Richard and Joe. Working with Blistered Thumbs helped me to make 2011 a year when I turned my life around, and I’ll never forget it.

And to those who tried to undermine me, I won’t stop. Ever. 

A pen in one hand, and a glass of merlot in the other.

-Micah C.

Every once in a while, it seems that something comes up in our society that I feel the need to comment on despite the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with video games, thus being outside my line of work. This time around, I wanted to talk about a video that has gone viral recently, which is called “Hate Religion, Love Jesus.” In the video, a student from Washington state speaks on his view of both religion and his coming to believe.

First and foremost, let me say that I think the critics of this man’s video are a bit off. To be quite frank, I don’t think that he’s really shortsighted. He legitimately points out some of the flaws within the structures of religious bodies. When it comes right down to it, political parties and classifications really are meaningless to the message contained in the Bible. There’s no passage that dictates someone who believes in God should also have to choose Presbyterian, Baptist, or so forth. When I was baptized, I don’t seem to remember Newt Gingrich waiting for me with a handshake, saying “Welcome to the Republican party, son. Hope you like war.”

However, the video itself is wrong on many levels, but ultimately the faults can be summed up in one statement. You see, this young man’s video actually is more about gripes with humanity’s application of belief, as opposed to the body of belief. Religion doesn’t start wars. Overambitious men who abuse the beliefs of others start wars. Religion isn’t the reason that some people get nasty glares when they walk into a church. It’s because human beings give into feelings of superiority, and want to use their beliefs to hold themselves above others. You see, it wasn’t religion that Christ came to abolish. It was to show people that there was a better way to live.

If the current state of religion is anything, it is simply a example of what happens when humanity takes something meant to do great things and twists it. You see, what Christ consistently focused on was people. He wasn’t a critic of the Jewish establishment of his day because they were religious. He was a critic of the establishment because the men who led it had become corrupt and self-centered. If you look at any of his examples used in his several parables, he discusses human character, and compares the self-serving to the self-sacrificing, and the wise to the foolish. He uses these examples not to show what’s wrong with religion, but rather what’s wrong with it when twisted by the desires of fools.

At the same time, I enjoy this little video. Aside from the nice little rhyme, it’s a video of self-reflection. There is a sub-sect of Christianity (primarily composed of non-denominational believers such as myself) that doesn’t even like the term Christian, but rather Man or Woman of God. I would just hate for those of us who have made that decision to lose sight of why we believe what we believe, and why we’ve chosen to follow a deity.

I hope that none of you will think of this blog entry as me trying to preach or convert you. To quote Christopher Hitchens, “Believe what you want to.”* A respectable statement from an outspoken Athiest, don’t you think?* As it stands, situations like this are just things that I feel I want to address simply because they fascinate me. It pleases me to see another Christian openly say that the Church is flawed, because not enough do.

-Micah C


* Side note: I think that Athiesm, as a belief structure, may have lost the only sensible human being in the public eye with those ideas when Hitchens died. Now the only Athiest I can think of in the public eye is nothing more than a fat e-beggar who is mad at Jesus for some relative of his dying, or something along those lines.

This has sort of become a routine of mine since 2008, but I’ve decided that I was going to make this year-end retrospective of mine just a public text post.

I want to say that 2011 was a good year for me. To be frank, that’s an understatement. Have you ever looked back at a year and said “such and such year was MY year”? Well, 2011 was my year. For me, I’m always going to look back at this year and say that this was the year that I turned my life around for the better. I’m going to share with you how it happened.

At the beginning of 2011, I was a broken man. I had been broken since 2009 began, and I essentially spent the better part of two years trying every wrong method of repairing my damaged self. I made several dumb mistakes, with a number of them being ones that compromised my morals. I won’t go into detail, just because I prefer not to talk about them. Not to mention the fact that adding the details just makes things more depressing.

To be frank, Blistered Thumbs was the only positive force in my life. My church felt spiritually dead, I wasn’t getting along with my family, and I had a hard time connecting with people. All these factors made me a miserable bastard, and there were a lot of complaints about me at the site. All of them were justified, because I was acting like a damn bully.

There was a point where I made a crucial moral mistake, and I won’t say exactly what it was. Let’s just say I did something that was completely against what I believe in, and I compromised myself because of it. In a call to my best friend, Devon, I told him what happened, and where I was in my life. He offered me a chance to look for something new. The proposal was simple: Spend five days with him looking for jobs in his area, which was the area I went to college in. Essentially, we take a leap of faith, and see where God sets us down.

Once I got here, I didn’t have a whole lot of luck. Most potential employers seemed disinterested in hiring, until I came to my last spot. In a place I call “hotel row” in Bloomington, I walked into my now current employer. My future boss gave me an instant interview, and in one week, I was hired. In fact, I was flattered that my boss said I was too smart for anything aside form the front desk. He needed someone good with computers and with extensive Windows experience, so here I am. I’ve been working here for seven months.

However, trouble didn’t end there. I had to earn my way back to having any sort of positive image with Channel Awesome. So, that’s what I did. I worked hard. I focused on improving my videos, and making sure that every review I did was given as much effort and time that I could possibly give to it. However, I didn’t do this for myself. One thing I had to remind myself was that the whole process wasn’t about me.

I am in the information business. It’s my job to inform. The thing is, information services aren’t about holding info over people’s heads or putting yourself on a pedestal. It’s about serving the public. It’s about providing a service to people who come to me for the information and perspectives that they want to read and hear about. Who am I really if I don’t provide that service? If I get lost in my own head, I lose my effectiveness.

Today, I’m 26 years old. My life isn’t perfect, but now I can say that my life is mine. I’ve rekindled my faith, my ideals, and have taken charge. For the first time in years, I have a future. At the end of the day, I have only one thing to say about everything.

Hope remains.

-Micah C.