The Quarter Bin

When Marvel Comics announced the new Ultimate line of titles in 2000, most fans turned their noses up at the idea and decided to ignore it. Ultimate Spider-Man, the flagship title, would feature a relatively unknown writer in Brian Michael Bendis and art by Mark Bagley, who just finished up a run on Thunderbolts. It seemed like Spider-Man: Chapter One all over again; a recipe for disaster. Except that fans unexpectedly embraced the book and the creative team like few other books on the stands. It’s now 156 issues later and Ultimate Spider-Man has been one of the best selling Marvel books for the last decade. With the new “Death of Spider-Man” arc beginning in the regular title, it’s the perfect time to look back at where and how it all began in the second Ultimate Spider-Man trade, Learning Curve. Read the rest of this entry »

After our brief break, our weekly digital breakdown is back. Check out this week’s must-have digital comic downloads for the iPad, iPhone, Android, and PSP. Read the rest of this entry »

Want to win a hardcover version of this comic and the game Rift? Follow @TheQuarterbin on Twitter and RT this post. A winner will be chosen on Monday night at midnight PDT!

For the past two months I’ve been immersing myself in the world of Telara in Trion Worlds’ MMO, Rift. While I definitely enjoyed the setting and the lore, I found myself doing, by force of habit, what I had done in every other MMORPG I have ever played: completely skipping the dialog during quests. I don’t do this in other RPGs, but in MMOs I feel the need to ignore the hundreds of thousands of words I’m offered in favor of running around and skinning wolves or killing Goblins. Because of this, I felt compelled to read the Rift four-part comic book, which has been bundled together into the Telara Chronicles, to help fill in the gaps in story missed by clicking “Next” over and over again. I was not let down. Read the rest of this entry »

This week finally saw the release of the much-hyped Nonplayer #1 by Nate Simpson. Featuring some incredibly gorgeous art and a story that promises loads of intrigue, Nonplayer just might be Image’s next big hit. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the glory days of console fighting games? You had gems like Killer Instinct and Eternal Champions. Then you also had titles like Clayfighter. Read the rest of this entry »

Opinions are split here at the QB when it comes to the upcoming Green Lantern movie. Some of us seem to be disappointed with the artistic direction, while others remain hopeful and optimistic. After this footage, released from this past week’s Wondercon… I don’t think any opinions are going to change. His suit still glows green, and the lantern still fails at looking anything like a lantern. If neither of those technicalities bother you, this footage is going to give you a triple-nerdgasm. You might want to bite on a pencil.

Read the rest of this entry »