Wizard #213, July

Megan Fox is hot and Wizard has a photo cover of the sexy Transformers star to prove it! The Outsiders is the Book Of The Month, Green lantern gets his own DVD, female statues rule and do you have the top 10 hottest comics. I have seven!

The Goon gets a movie, B.P.R.D. travels back to 1947, Obama is a comic book phenomena and check out the Ultimate Avengers Sketchbook. Kick-Ass is a killer movie, Dawn has her time, Fantagraphics is armed and dangerous and Surrogates is hard-wired.

Bryan Fuller returns to Heroes, Atomika is raising the Mercury, War Machine ups the ante when it comes to war and Shia LaBeouf talks about robots. Radical has plans, Marvel's Oz strikes gold and Wizard has The Last Word.

Posters And Packets

I love certain kinds of posters, especially special interest posters. You know, posters that show different subjects, be they animals, historical locations, diagrams, etc. Posters of rock stars or celebrities turn me off. Movie posters? It depends on the movie. Posters that teach you something, that's my favorite and that's why I get such a kick out of the many laminated and un-laminated posters Safari Ltd. turns out.

I just got a couple and they are so cool. First up is a huge laminated poster showing the different type of fish that live in and around 'The Coral Reef'. Each fish is shown in side view, facing right. This allows you to see every little detail on each fish. From their size to coloring, each difference is crystal clear. An aerial view of The Great Barrier Reef, a Coral Polyp Crossection and a 3D crossection of the various levels of the sea bottom from the shore to the reef limestone are also included. See what I mean! Fun to look and education!

What little boy, or man for that matter, doesn't want to fly a big commercial aircraft? I know I do. But, more than likely it will never happen and that's OK. Safari Ltd. has produced a full-color, laminated poster that shows the complete cockpit of a commercial jet. Every dial, button, switch, light, readout, handle, lever and cockpit detail is shown in full-detail. You can even see out the front windshields at the lit airstrip extending out before the craft.

I feel as if I could sit myself down in the pilot or co-pilot seats, strap in, go through pre-flight preparations, contact the tower and take off!

OK, it's time to bag it! Before you think I'm being rude, what I mean is, it's time to check out Safari Ltd.'s cool selection of bagged critters and objects. This time around I'd like to clue you in on a neat selection of past and present critters found either on land and in the water.

First, let's jump into our handy time machine and travel back several thousand years ago to scout out some prehistoric mammals. Like all of Safari Ltd.'s critters this selection is packed with detail form their fur or hide textures, sculpting and paint application. All are posed in realistic stances and look to be in-scale to each other. Animals include Wooly Mammoths, a Deodicus with its spiked tail, a Giant Sloth (sorry no Sid), a Sabretooth Tiger, the Mammoth's cousin, the Amebelodon, and Andrewsarchus ( a nasty looking canine) and a Arsinotherium (an early Rhino).

Moving up to the present time we've come to visit the Jungle with all of its varied wildlife. Elephants, panthers, gorillas, hippos, zebras, bears, tigers, camels, crocodiles, giraffes, lions and rhinos (oh my!) are included in the 48 piece set. That's a lot of wild animals to contend with!

For a more docile type of animal check out Safari Ltd.'s Horse Collection containing 48 horses of all types from Arabian to ponies. Giddee up! Time to saddle up and bring in the herd.

Are you ready to 'sea' life? No, not that kind of 'see' as in vision. Are you ready to 'see' Safari Ltd.'s Sea Life selection? If you dig the aquatic, ogle over the ocean or get giddy at the thought of seeing a dolphin, sea turtle or shark up close, then this is the animal selection for you!

Every type of aquatic animal is represented from whales, to turtles to octopus to starfish to the aquatic sea bird, the penguin. So, dive in. Get yourself wet and enjoy or fine finned and feathered sea critter companions.

X-Men Origins Wolverine

For Wii from Activison comes the claw-slashing, Adamantium-laced adventures of everyone’s favorite Canadian X-Man, Wolverine.
Pop your claws as you become the feral Wolverine while he searches for the last secrets of his past. Slash through foes, both human and mutant, as you prove to everyone that, "I’m the best at what I do and what I do isn’t nice.”
Wolverine travels through many levels based loosely on the chronological order of his life beginning roughly when he was lumberjack. Start off by taking on some jealous lumberjacks who resent Wolverine’s tree-cutting abilities. From there you tackle various bad guys and goons (many from the movie) as you slowly, methodically and viciously work your way up to being the baddest of the bad.
Along the way you can gain extra speed and healing ability by performing certain moves and tasks.
The action pumps up a notch as you fight your longtime foe, Sabretooth in a cluttered compound. Wii’s controls make maneuvering Wolverine seem natural. Although lacking in some areas-such as a consistent soundtrack and lots of blood (what you would expect for Wolverine) the X-Men Origins Wolverine video game is rated ‘T’ for teen and (in my opinion) is a pretty safe play for younger players. Pump up the violence and gore and the game would receive a more mature label. As it is, Wolverine is a bit tame compared to his comic book and movie versions.