Tomb Raider

   Once upon a time many years ago (or 10 to 12), Lara Croft was one of gaming's biggest and most popular icons. She had all the makings of a great video game heroine. She was tough, fun, sexy, courageous and knew how to shoot dinosaurs in the face. Like her counterpart Samas Aran, she stood out among the lot of video game characters as someone different then what the norm was. She is even one of the few video game characters to transcend the video game format and influence popular culture as well with a major motion picture, tons of models posing for the character, a successful comic book run and becoming one of video games many recognizable faces along with characters like Mario and Sonic.
    Unfortunately the years have not been very kind to Ms. Croft. After the first game things started to go down hill. Sequel after sequel were made and each iteration did very little to change the previous games formula. Each game had minor changes but you were essentially doing the same thing in every game. Run into tomb, shoot things, shoot things while jumping, platforming and then done (repeat for the rest of the game). All the problems with the series culminated in "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness". A buggy mess of a game that made playing "Drake of the 99 Dragons" look appealing (Okay okay nothing makes that game look appealing). After "Angel of Darkness" Lara was sold to studio Crystal Dynamics, better known for games such as the "Gex" games and the "Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver" series. Her games got better but they weren't unique anymore. No matter what Lara did (if she made a good game or a bad game) she just didn't stick out like she used to and was still primarily in the background of gaming culture. And for many people (myself included) that's where I felt she would forever stay.
     However in 2011 gamers found out that a reboot was in the works for gaming's first lady and that it would portray Lara in the beginning of her career, as frightened, stranded girl on her first adventure and that this tale would be bloody, dark and grim. So after two years of hype, Lara has made her return in a flawed but enjoyable game.

Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 VS. NOVA #1, Showdown!!!

     Hello everyone and welcome to a new addition to the Mr. Ginger blog that I like the call "Showdown!!!" (specifically with 3 exclamation points because.....um it's a prime number I guess). In this segment I'm going to take two or more things that are very similar in one way or another and match them up against each other. Examples of similarities between the properties may include similar stories, similar concepts, similar characters, a sequel vs an original, maybe it's the same type of a certain medium (A shonen fight series vs another shonen fight series) and etc. This could even branch out and cover specific characters, story arcs, weapons but perhaps in a smaller segment.

   Now before you say anything, yes I am totally copying the Nostalgia Critics Old V.S. New Idea but only a little bit. I will be doing remakes vs originals in this series but I don't intend to do just that. I want to take the idea to it's natural conclusion and pair up many different things to see witch one I enjoy more. Also I want to stress that this is all just for fun and that in no way am I saying that if you like a certain property that makes you in the wrong, you are free to like what ever you like and I don't want to take that away from you.This is just my opinion and I hope that you can respect that, cause I know you can Internet.

    For the first segment of this new series I wanted to start out with two properties that were just recently released by Marvel. Yes while my specialty is always going to be on screened media, I do love comic books. Some of my favorite stories of all time have come out of comic books and I've discovered many great writers and artists because of them. More specifically I love superhero comics, brave men and women fighting to save the day from the worst scum in the universe (or was the Men in Black?). Anyway, two properties were recently revived by Marvel as a part of their "Marvel NOW" initiative (though from what I hear that could soon be the Marvel THEN initiative he he he man that was lame). The two are fairly different properties but as I was reading them I couldn't help but realize that they are very very similar. So lets not waste anymore time, It's time for a Showdown, Guardians of the Galaxy # 0.1 VS. NOVA #1. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!)

                 

                                   VS.