Star Wars Spin Off Ideas (With Posters!)

As an avid Star Wars fan I am as excited as anyone for the new Star Wars Trilogy, which begins next December with The Force Awakens, However as an avid EU fan, I am even more excited at the prospect of these spin off movies, starting in 2016 with Gareth Edwards' new movie and continuing from there. Nobody knows what they are about, but a lot of EU fans are hoping for something familiar brought back into canon. These are just some of my ideas for some great spin off ideas, complete with fan casting and Microsoft Paint quality posters!

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters

The idea of a Boba Fett spin off is the most obvious, but how about a two-person team to bring back Dengar? Sort of like a Few Dollars More in space! My cast choices are Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Boba Fett and Karl Urban for Dengar. JGL might seem like an odd choice but I think he could pull it off. Also Bossk is the main villain, but I don't care who plays him, as he has no English dialogue.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

This I think would be the best idea for a spin off, like a Top Gun but in X-Wings. Grant Gustin is a young Corran Horn and Brandon Routh is Wedge Antilles, just after the Battle of Yavin.

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Tom Hardy, Manu Bennett, Jason Momoa, Michael Jai White, and Ray Stevenson play a rogue crew of Imperial Stormtroopers who rebel against the Empire, and the villain, an Imperial Officer played by Christoph Waltz enlists bounty hunters Dave Bautista, Robert Maillet and Kim Coates, and an Inquisitor played by Nan Yu to hunt them down. That sounds like an awesome action movie to me, like a Star Wars Expendables!

Yoda: The Legend Begins

a solo adventure about a padawan Yoda, the seminal story where he goes from a padawan to a master. Frank Oz as Yoda, Michael B. Jordan as Mace Windu, and Malcolm McDowell as Darth Tenebrous (with Daniel Davis altered by CGI as a young Plagueis, in a possible standalone sequel)






I have more ideas, but I will save them for a later entry. I hope you enjoyed.

Versus Series #2: Batman vs Green Goblin

The Versus Series are battles between comic book characters that I think would be intriguing or exciting matchups. They use characters from all comic books and different versions and incarnations of the characters. For instance, this battle is between the Pre 52 Batman and Post-Civil War Green Goblin

Photos Courtesy of Comic Vine

How they Meet:
Norman Osborn attempts to destroy his only competitor in military applications, Wayne Enterprises, by destroying Wayne Tower as the Green Goblin. Bruce, as Batman, chases Osborn back to the Oscorp Tower to exact vengeance.

Equipment:
Neither man has prepped in advance for this fight, but it is in Osborn's building. He has an endless supply of Pumpkin Bombs, Razor Bats, and he also has the Iron Patriot suit lying around. He also has the glider, and Goblin suit. Batman has only what he brought with him: 5 batarangs, the Batclaw, the Grapnel Gun, Bat Rope, and a handful of smoke bombs.


The Fight:
Osborn attempts to hide in his office, and places mines at the door. However, Batman comes in through the window behind him, and tackles him. Goblin uses the flashes from his gloves to blind Bats as he kicks him off. Goblin throws a pumpkin bomb, blasting Batman out the window, but Batman uses his grapnel gun to ascend the exterior of the building. Goblin, now on his glider, throws more grenades at Batman, but he dodges and does a gliding Bat-kick, knocking Goblin off his glider and through the window, back into Oscorp. Osborn crawls away, but Batman uses the batclaw to drag him back. Goblin waits until he is close to Bats and then stabs a razor bat, directly into Batman's chest. Batman goes down, but is not dead, and Osborn knows it. He gets up and opens a hidden door in his office, revealing the Iron Patriot suit. Osborn puts it on, and turns back, but Batman is gone. Suddenly, smoke bombs rain all around Patriot, and Batman comes from nowhere and shoves Iron Patriot out the window. Patriot's rockets fire up, but Batman hits one of his flight stabilizers with a batarang. Osborn ejects from the suit and nearly falls to his death, but Batman catches him and ties him up with the Batrrope.

The Result:
Batman wins, but his morals keep him from killing Osborn. He is captured alive and sent to Arkham Asylum.

Captain America: Civil War Prediction

This is a little infographic I put together for the upcoming Captain America: Civil War, depicting what I believe will be the two factions in the upcoming movie. I have a reasoning for everyone below

Firstly, Captain America's anti-reg movement:

• Nick Fury - Has trusted Cap in the past, while at the same time knows that he can't trust Stark
• Winter Soldier - Obvious, as he is Cap's lifelong friend
• Black Widow - Seems to be very close to Cap, especially in Avengers and Winter Soldier
• Falcon - Another Captain America guy, loyal to his friend
• Phil Coulson - A self-professed Captain America fanboy
• Scarlet Witch - This is arbitrary, but splitting up the twins gives the movie a bigger civil war feel
• Ant Man - a rebel, would not register with the government
• Sharon Carter - A clear love interest for Captain America

and now for Iron Man's team:

• Maria Hill - ends Cap 2 working for Stark, could be manipulated
• Hawkeye - a soldier who blindly follows orders
• Pepper Potts - Tony's love interest
• Vision - Basically JARVIS, Tony's robot
• Iron Patriot - Government soldier and TOny's friend
• Quicksilver - see Scarlet Witch
• Black Panther - Mostly neutral, but probably doesn't want to rebel against the foreign US
• Hank Pym - seems more likely to join the government than be a rebel
• Hulk - A good friend of Tony, would stick with him and try and register

This is all speculative, but I think that it is a good prediction to how the lines will be drawn (Assuming nobody dies in Age of Ultron, which for the record I predict Hawkeye and Quicksilver will both die)

Nickelback is a Better Band Than Aerosmith!

Nickelback is better than Aerosmith! There I said it. No I didn't lose a bet. Aerosmith were nobody for years and years, and quickly faded into obscurity, and then MTV (back when they actually had music and not jackasses and ridiculousness) made them popular in what I can only assume is a practical joke taken too far. They were then inexplicably paired together with Run DMC, which is the only reason why anybody knows Walk This Way.

Now, I'm not saying that Nickelback is a great band; they're not, but there are much more popular bands who are much worse. Aerosmith is a prime example, but I would also say Metallica is pretty awful too. (If you don't believe me, watch them phone it in live)

This begs the question: what makes people hate or love one band over another? Is it ability? Chad Kroeger is a very able musical performer, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with his music although he lacks an original sound. Similarly, Joe Perry of Aerosmith is a competent guitarist, but nothing exceptional (although he has been able to basically make a living on that one riff from Walk This Way)

All three bands also have an annoying, yelly lead singer, but between Hetfield, Tyler, and Kroeger, Kroeger is probably the most bearable. (Having said that of course, Photograph is just dreadfull. Who reminisces on happy romantic times by yelling?)

This isn't an Aerosmith hate article, so much as a Nickelback apologist article. They aren't as bad as they are made out to be, and are even better than the bands that it is "cool" to like. So have an open mind when listening to their music, and other people's music and like or hate them based on that.

P.S. I know that a lot of Nickelback's music videos are misogynist garbage, but if you go through most North American bands' music videos, they are no better, so that is not a viable "Hate Nickelback" argument.

Plo Koon Lives!

This week I too some time to work on a project I've had on my mind for a while, actually a mix of a few ideas. Plo Koon is one of my favourite Jedi, and I wasn't a fan of the way he died in Revenge of the Sith. I would have been satisfied if he had been killed by Vader or even Sidious (during Mace's attempt to arrest him) but not shot down in a starfighter.

My fan theory for a while was that Plo survived, killed or evaded his clones on Cato Neimoidia, and then went into exile the same way Yoda and Obi-Wan did, never to be seen again.

Along with the Plo Koon idea, I have also been wanting to do a samurai cartoon, but I never had the story. This fan film is a mixture of both, a samurai movie that takes place in the Star Wars Universe.

The only pain is that I didn''t have a microphone, but other than that I think it turned out good.

Best Story Arcs by Comic

Because of my extensive knowledge of comic books and the like, I am often consulted by new readers in my online and offline communities. The common question is "what is the best [insert character here] story?"

Now, you could have done like I have done and read through them all, painstakingly deciding which ones are great and which ones are not so great, but instead, I've created a list of top fives kept on this page for reference. I hope this list helps any newcomers to comics, and I hope they can get as interested in them as I am. So let's start!

Batman

1. Year One - This is a great starting point for any new Batman reader. I recommend this to anyone unfamiliar with Batman's origin, or anyone who really liked Batman Begins.
2. Long Halloween - A great detective noir story steeped in lore with a lot of villains!
3. Hush - similar reasons to Long Halloween, also introduced a great villain and fleshed out a lot of Bruce's backstory, just a fun read overall
4. Court of Owls - A newer jumping-on point for new readers, also introduces a new iconic villain.
5. Knightfall - Has plenty of villains and heroes. It also introduces one of Batman's key villains in Bane.

(With Batman there are so many, I could do a top 50, but I will leave it at my top 5, others may be different)

Superman

1. Red Son - This story is non-canon but in many ways the best Superman story ever told.
2. All Star Superman - encompasses everything great about the Superman mythos into one story, with beautiful artwork.
3. Superman: Earth One - A retelling of his origin story that new readers should check out.
4. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? - An interesting take on Superman told from Lois Lane's perspective.
5. Kingdom Come - A good story made better by Alex Ross' fantastic artwork.

 Justice League

1. Justice - like Kingdom Come, but more fun, packed with heroes and villains all done in amazing artwork by Alex Ross.
2. Origin - The New 52 jumping on point is a fun story and a must for new readers.
3. Tower of Babel - A great Justice League and a great Batman story, all in one.
4. JLA/Avengers - for all the crossover fanatics out there.
5. Brave and the Bold #28 - their original formation against one of the most ridiculous villains of the Silver Age.

Other DC Characters

1. Wonder Woman: Blood - Not many comics treat Wonder Woman with the respect she deserves, but Blood and the subsequent run does in spades, best WW story by far.
2. Flash: Secret Origin - Just a really great Flash story, although there are many to choose from.
3. Sinestro Corps War - A Green Lantern story steeped in lore and has many heroes and villains including the Justice League.
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths - Just the biggest cluster of chaos ever released, packed with a ridiculous amount of characters.
5. Blackest Night - Most of the DC Universe was involved and it was a blast to read, very steeped in lore though, not for first time readers.

X-Men

1. Dark Phoenix Saga
2. Days of Future Past
3. House of M
4. Dangerous
5. First Class

Avengers

1. Civil War
2. Age of Ultron
3. Infinity Gauntlet
4. Breakout

Others

1. Planet Hulk
2. Secret Wars
3. The Night Gwen Stacy Died
4. World War Hulk
5. Gambit: Once a Thief

Versus Series #1: Green Arrow vs Bane

The Versus Series are battles between comic book characters that I think would be intriguing or exciting matchups. They use characters from all comic books and different versions and incarnations of the characters. For instance, this battle is between the Green Arrow from the CW show, and Bane from the Dark Knight Rises.

How They Meet:

This takes place in the second act of the Dark Knight Rises. Batman has been broken, and Bane has taken control of Gotham with his legion of mercenaries. The US Army is unable to interfere due to the fear of a nuclear bomb. Oliver Queen, AKA The Green Arrow, however, is able to slip into Gotham in the dead of night, and fights Bane down in the sewer.


Equipment
Arrow has been planning for this fight, but Bane hasn't. Arrow came equipped with 50 arrows, plus 10 grappling hook arrows and 5 explosive/flashbang arrows, and his sword. Bane is unarmed, but is of course wearing his morphine mask and that turtle shell Kevlar vest he wears during his fight with Batman.


The Fight:
Bane's quick reflexes allow him to catch Ollie's first Arrow, however it was a flashbang arrow, which temporarily blinds Bane. Ollie takes advantage and pushes Bane over the railing. Ollie leaps down and draws his sword, but Bane smacks it away and throws Ollie. The Green Arrow swings on a chain and comes back to kick Bane in the face. He draws his bow and fires. The arrow bounces off of Bane's vest. A second arrow pierces his arm, but Bane doesn't feel pain when he wears the mask. Bane gets to Ollie before he can fire another arrow and pushes him up against the wall, punching him in the face. Ollie is bloodied, and collapses to the ground. Bane takes some time to taunt Green Arrow, buying him time to fire a grappling arrow and climb into the shadows. From the shadows, an explosive arrow is fired, knocking Bane back and damaging his mask. Arrow swings down and pounces on Bane. With his mask destroyed, Bane goes into convulsions, but as Oliver preps the finishing arrow, Bane retrieves Ollie's sword and stabs him in the gut with it. Arrow falls to the ground. Bane's mercs come and put the mask back on him, but as Bane gets up, Arrow rolls into the sewer and escapes.


The Result:

Technically neither man died, but it is evident that if Arrow hadn't escaped, he would have lost. Moral victory for Bane

*Photos courtesy of Green Arrow Wiki and The Sun respectively*