 First, he helps create podcast excellence with Secret identity! Then, he graduates college as one of the most interesting graduates at Springfield Technical Community College. Soon, his image will be on a billboard! But in the now, he made the cover of The Springfield Rescue Mission Magazine!
 Secret Identity has had a long standing love affair with ‘Chew’ ever since writer John Layman told us the story! For the past 20 or so issues, the ‘mighty one’ and artist Rob Guillory have crafted a unique story that stands out among the zillions of titles on the shelf!
Not being a one trick pony, John has added another title to his slate; Godzilla – Gangsters and Goliaths from IDW. In this second (and strongest) of IDW’s ‘zilla books, G-GG follows the story of a Japanese policeman who finds his way onto Monster Island as he runs from a Japanese gangster! “In the entire print history of Godzilla,” said Matman “this series has captured what is cool about Godzilla and the films! Godzilla can’t be the lead; he needs to be a strong supporting character!” Adding to the awesomeness of the book is artist Alberto Ponticelli who draws Godzilla, Mothra and the Space Twins perfectly! But Layman’s writing isn’t designated to people who solve crimes by eating body parts or the king of the monsters! Recently he wrote the Marvel three issue event ‘Identity Wars’ that ran through Spider-Man, Deadpool and the Hulk annuals. As an added bonus, he is joined another Secret Identity fav, former Batgirl artist Lee Garbett! All three books are still available at your local comic shop. “There are a few scribes that I get anything they write,” added Matman! “Sterling Gates, Nick Spencer, Geoff Johns, Joe Kelly and add to that list John Layman  by Brian LeTendre
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (TF3) is pretty much the Transformers movie I wanted to see the first time around. I think it’s easily the best of the series, although that’s not saying much, as I thought the first one was so-so, and the second one was awful. I won’t bother getting into the story, except to say that the premise is interesting. But let’s face it--I did not go see TF3 at the theater and pay the extra money for 3D to see a good story. I went to see robot carnage, and this movie has it in spades. TF3 starts with a flashback to the war on Cybertron, and that’s just the appetizer. The last 45 minutes of the movie is just a giant battle scene, and sprinkled in between are some smaller, but equally awesome action sequences. Optimus Prime is finally a butt-kicking leader for the first time in the trilogy. Megatron is scarred from the events of the last movie, and it makes him even more menacing. Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime is great. All in all, TF3 is a technical marvel. From the robots themselves, to the 3D effects, the movie is visually amazing. The story is decent, but there’s plenty of cheesy Michael Bay-isms throughout that are just downright cheesy. But who cares? We’re talking about a movie franchise featuring giant robots based on a toyline and cartoon from 25 years ago. If you were disappointed with the action in the first two movies, TF3 more than makes up for that. See it in the theater, in 3D, where you can truly appreciate it. 4 out of 5 Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots  by Brian LeTendre Mighty Fin is a fun side-scroller that initially hooked me (see what I did there?) with it’s simple control scheme and charming aesthetic. After spending some more time with the game, I also found a lot of reasons to keep coming back. In Mighty Fin you play as the title character, a fish who embarks on a vacation that takes him to various locations around the world. Unfortunately for Fin, his travel agent Shady Sal has booked some rather dangerous locales for Fin to spend his vacation in, and Fin has to avoid hazards ranging from hungry seagulls to spiked ice flows while trying to collect bubbles and new outfits to wear on his adventure. The game’s core mechanic is simple, and perfectly suited to the iPhone’s touchscreen. Fin moves through the water on his own at a consistent pace. The player touches the screen to make Fin dive deeper into the water, and lets go to make Fin jump up and out of the water. The collectibles and the hazards are arranged so that you need to time your jumps and dives to navigate them effectively. It’s a mechanic that’s very easy to understand, and even my five year old was able to pick the game up and play almost immediately. Once you’ve beaten a level, it becomes unlocked and can be played over and over again. As you make your way through different levels, things get a bit more difficult, but I never found the later levels frustrating. The game features leaderboards as well, and that combined with the collectible outfits gives players a reason to replay levels multiple times. All in all, Mighty Fin offers a really fun experience for gamers of all ages. Launching Pad Games is quickly becoming one of my favorite developers, as they clearly understand the strengths of the platform they are developing for. Their games also feature great writing, characters and visual design. Mighty Fin is an easy recommend for me. 4.5 out of 5 Costumed Goldfish You can get Mighty Fin now on iTunes for a mere $0.99. To keep up on all of Launching Pad's projects, head over to www.launchingpadgames.com.    |
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