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One of the most prolific and legendary artists to ever work for Marvel Comics has left us. John Romita Sr. has sadly passed away at the age of 93, on June 13. The news arrived via Twitter, in a post from his son John Romita Jr., himself an art legend at Marvel Comics. The elder Romita was especially famous for taking over art duties on The Amazing Spider-Man, redefining Peter Parker’s look. This was after Spidey’s co-creator Steve Ditko left the title. During his time with Spidey, he introduced several of his co-creations to the lore, like the Kingpin and Peter Parker’s future wife, Mary Jane Watson. Stan Lee asked Romita to draw “the most beautiful girl you can imagine” when creating MJ. Romita delivered on that promise in just one iconic panel.
In addition to his five-year run on The Amazing Spider-Man, Romita also co-created the characters of Wolverine, Luke Cage, and the Punisher. Technically Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko co-created the bulk of the classic Marvel heroes and villains. But by the early ’70s, Romita was the chief architect in how Marvel’s characters looked in merchandising. John Romita became the go-to guy when you needed images of Marvel’s pantheon of heroes drawn in heroic poses. In fact, during this period, John Romita Romita would serve the role of Marvel’s art director.
John Romita was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, the son of Italian immigrants. By 19, he was already working as a comic book artist. He would then find success drawing romance comics aimed at a female audience. In 1966, he got hired by Marvel, to draw their relatively low-selling series Daredevil. But after eight issues, Stan Lee hired him to take over for Steve Ditko when he left The Amazing Spider-Man.
During Romita’s time, he put his experience with romance comics to good use. He made Peter Parker more handsome, like a soap opera lead. He became a character MJ Watson would believably fall for. During Romita’s Spider-Man tenure, the title would go from Marvel’s second best-selling title to their biggest seller.
If you were a Gen-X kid growing up in the ’70s and ’80s loving Marvel Comics, then the art of John Romita was the way you perceived the Marvel characters. From calendars to plastic cups to posters to lunchboxes, it was Romita’s renditions that were on almost every piece of merchandising during this era. The Marvel “House Style” ultimately wasn’t Jack Kirby or Gil Kane or any other prolific artist, it was Romita’s. The heroic pose of Spidey standing in the center of his web was an image every kid knew back in the day. Most kids didn’t know who drew it, but it was the distinctive touch of John Romita. Although Romita mostly retired for the last several decades, he drew the occasional issue or cover for Marvel, reminding younger readers that he still had it. His contributions to the art form of comic books will not be forgotten.
The post Iconic Comic Book Artist John Romita Has Passed Away, Age 93 appeared first on Nerdist.
One of the most prolific and legendary artists to ever work for Marvel Comics has left us. John Romita Sr. has sadly passed away at the age of 93, on June 13. The news arrived via Twitter, in a post from his son John Romita Jr., himself an art legend at Marvel Comics. The elder Romita was especially famous for taking over art duties on The Amazing Spider-Man, redefining Peter Parker’s look. This was after Spidey’s co-creator Steve Ditko left the title. During his time with Spidey, he introduced several of his co-creations to the lore, like the Kingpin and Peter Parker’s future wife, Mary Jane Watson. Stan Lee asked Romita to draw “the most beautiful girl you can imagine” when creating MJ. Romita delivered on that promise in just one iconic panel.
In addition to his five-year run on The Amazing Spider-Man, Romita also co-created the characters of Wolverine, Luke Cage, and the Punisher. Technically Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko co-created the bulk of the classic Marvel heroes and villains. But by the early ’70s, Romita was the chief architect in how Marvel’s characters looked in merchandising. John Romita became the go-to guy when you needed images of Marvel’s pantheon of heroes drawn in heroic poses. In fact, during this period, John Romita Romita would serve the role of Marvel’s art director.
John Romita was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, the son of Italian immigrants. By 19, he was already working as a comic book artist. He would then find success drawing romance comics aimed at a female audience. In 1966, he got hired by Marvel, to draw their relatively low-selling series Daredevil. But after eight issues, Stan Lee hired him to take over for Steve Ditko when he left The Amazing Spider-Man.
During Romita’s time, he put his experience with romance comics to good use. He made Peter Parker more handsome, like a soap opera lead. He became a character MJ Watson would believably fall for. During Romita’s Spider-Man tenure, the title would go from Marvel’s second best-selling title to their biggest seller.
If you were a Gen-X kid growing up in the ’70s and ’80s loving Marvel Comics, then the art of John Romita was the way you perceived the Marvel characters. From calendars to plastic cups to posters to lunchboxes, it was Romita’s renditions that were on almost every piece of merchandising during this era. The Marvel “House Style” ultimately wasn’t Jack Kirby or Gil Kane or any other prolific artist, it was Romita’s. The heroic pose of Spidey standing in the center of his web was an image every kid knew back in the day. Most kids didn’t know who drew it, but it was the distinctive touch of John Romita. Although Romita mostly retired for the last several decades, he drew the occasional issue or cover for Marvel, reminding younger readers that he still had it. His contributions to the art form of comic books will not be forgotten.
The post Iconic Comic Book Artist John Romita Has Passed Away, Age 93 appeared first on Nerdist.
The Sonic the Hedgehog live-action renaissance continues with Knuckles, a Paramount+ series with Idris Elba reprising his role as the red ball of Echidna fury. Well, he’s not so angry now but don’t test him. We’ve known about the Knuckles spinoff series for a while; however, we are finally getting some new casting information. Not only is Tika Sumpter reprising her role as Maddie in the Knuckles TV series, but Adam Pally will also join the cast as Wade Whipple. In case you forgot, he’s a Green Hills police officer and Tom’s BFF.
According to Variety, Knuckles will take place between the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and the upcoming third installment. The next Sonic adventure will hit theaters on December 20, 2024. In this series, Wade will become Knuckle’s protégé as he learns “the ways of the Echidna warrior.” Why is this happening? We don’t know, and we do not care. We just want to see more Knuckles on our screen, especially if he is playing base of ball. It’s not clear when this series will drop, but it is in production as of April 2023. So maybe we will see it later this year or even early next year.
We don’t know if James Marsden will reprise his role as Tom or not, but a few others are joining Sumpter. The Knuckles series cast includes Edi Patterson, Scott Mescudi (known as Kid Cudi), Ellie Taylor, Rory McCann, Christopher Lloyd, Cary Elwes, Paul Scheer, Stockard Channing, and Rob Huebel. Either way, Knuckles is back on the scene and getting the solo love that he so deserves (no shade to Sonic) in his own spinoff series.
Originally published on April 17, 2023.
The post SONIC THE HEDGEHOG Spinoff Series KNUCKLES Adds Christopher Lloyd and More to Cast appeared first on Nerdist.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of the biggest games of 2017. Not only did it sell like gangbusters, but its influence on the gaming landscape cannot be understated. So when the direct sequel to BotW was announced, the needle on the collective gamer hype meter flew right off. Yet, there were some naysayers out there. “A sequel? Like Final Fantasy, Zelda sequels aren’t good.” “It’s the same map, Nintendo’s scamming us.” “Just adding a sky map is lazy.” Oh, my sweet summer child. You don’t know just how mistaken you are. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is not only an amazing game on its own, but it is also a masterclass in how to properly make a sequel.
Tears of the Kingdom: A Truly Lived-In World
While there were some doubters, many of us knew Nintendo could be trusted. Sequels aren’t new to the Zelda franchise from The Legend of Zelda II to Majora’s Mask and quite a few others. Majora’s Mask was actually my first Zelda game that got me into the franchise. Something it and Tears of the Kingdom have in common is that they work perfectly fine as standalone titles. You don’t have to play the originals if you want to just jump into it, but you get so much more if you have. Tears of the Kingdom‘s world is just so alive and lived in. With Breath of the Wild, the world had many mysteries as to the history of the world, and you, as Link who was sleeping for a hundred years and is surely not a historian, just didn’t know. The people around might have vague ideas, but many times it was just an unknown. And those mysteries get fleshed out here in satisfying ways. And that’s how you reuse assets. Plant seeds in the first game for the payoff in the second. Other games stumble at this, but the Zelda team has always known how to implement this.
I think of something like Far Cry New Dawn, a direct sequel to Far Cry 5 that also uses the same world and a lot of the same assets while adding new mechanics and story. Far Cry 5 was a positively received game, and players were looking forward to it and jumping back into this world, especially to see the fallout of its bonkers canonical ending. But what did it actually add to entice players to come back? Actually, not that much. Yes, it looks nice, the story is less up it’s own ass, but at the end of the day, it was boring and a lot of game sequels fall into this trap. Yes, in the past when we had good games we wanted more of the same, more of that. But games have evolved, and we don’t just want more, we want better. Zelda makes sure to give you better. It updates the surface environments to show how time has passed, it tweaks the game mechanics that make it almost entirely new, and the story is more interesting and fuller than its previous iterations.
This also expands to the characters of Tears of the Kingdom. The familiar faces you will rediscover have grown and developed which really comes through in the story. They have their different challenges and wants and you, just as in the first game, can decide how much you want to invest in it. If you want, you can (mostly) B line it straight to the final boss just like the first game. But the many secondary and side quest flesh out a lot of the world lore, and it’s worth the effort. Especially learning the history of this Hyrule (timeline be damned). I’m not going to lie; I enjoyed Nintendo’s middle finger to the Zelda timeline many of us obsess over. Maybe a bit deserved, but the approach here is a straight up chef’s kiss. And it’s not just the story that Nintendo nailed, but they nail the locations and map as well. I SpongeBob meme anyone saying, “LaMe SkY iSlaNdS iS a LaZy AdDiTiOn.” Y’all literally have no clue what you’re talking about. Don’t just look up, look down.
As Above, So Below
After the first trailer, my hype meter was already maxed out. So I began to stay away from further trailers and promotional releases. So I didn’t know, I had no idea… The moment a quest led me to jump into a giant hole I thought it would put me in a cave or something. But as I jumped, and Link fell for what seemed like forever and that musical score kicked in, my mind was blown. This was The Depths. Nintendo wasn’t content with just adding some admittedly small islands in the sky. No, they made an entire underground area the size of the already giant surface map with its own quests, collectibles, and ecosystem. It’s like a prehistoric forest with giant ancient trees and fungus completely different from the surface. To traverse The Depths, you have to find ancient roots called lightroots. This acts as the underground sky towers to fill in the map. Until you find them though, it’s complete darkness. The only thing you’ll see are small blue flames of Poes and the soft red glow of the gloom. Malice that will drain the life from Link and decreasing his hearts until cured.
There are plenty of games, good games even, that will reuse its maps in some way. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a fully reused map, GTA: San Andreas lets you revisit Liberty City, Saints Row 3 and 4, etc. These are good to great games, but Tears of the Kingdom not only gives you a refreshed map, but The Depths which is the same size as the surface PLUS the sky islands. (Slaps the hood of the Switch) This baby is getting you over twice the map as the original without it feeling over bloated. Not every game needs a huge map; in fact, it can actually worsen a game. A common complaint about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is just how bloated its map was and how filled it was with busy work and collectibles. Tears of the Kingdom side quest feel like they all have a purpose of fleshing out the world. Not all but most, side-eyeing those Korok seeds… But 98% serves some purpose other than just giving you busy work, and that’s the trap a lot of games fall into.
Can We Build It? Yes, We Can!
Nintendo really did listen to a lot of the feedback for Breath of the Wild and applied it beautifully in Tears of the Kingdom. A divisive mechanic from the first came was the weapon degradation. It seemed like every other fight Link got into would cause the weapons to shatter. Nintendo had an interesting solution by incorporating it into the story and giving you the ability to upgrade and make your own weapons. Put a Keese eye on an arrow and it becomes a homing arrow. Add a Lizalfos horn to a rusted sword and you upped its damage power tenfold. It’s crazy the amount a variety Nintendo was able to come up with. And they still added more to the creative sandbox. With the Zonai artifacts, you can make almost anything your mind can conceive. A quick search will show you the utterly insane concepts some players were able to come up with. Put a rocket on your shield to fly up in the sky or make a Sentai-style battle robot. It’s pretty much only limited by your imagination and ingenuity.
Take to the Sky
Developers can use The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the blueprint for nailing a sequel game. It started with a masterpiece of a game and somehow found a way to top itself. The gameplay is fun, the environments are beautiful, and the story is captivating. I didn’t talk much about the story – the return of Ganondorf proper, the first king and queen of Hyrule, the Seven Sages – because it’s best experienced for yourself. It’s not an exaggeration to say that this game has early Game of the Year considerations. So go out, buy this game, and experience it for yourself. Because if you don’t, you’re missing out on one of the best games in years.
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The post A Masterclass in Sequels – ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.