Comics, Wrestling and Warhammer 40K!

I did it!!!!

2005-06-08T18:21:00.000+01:00

I got my results, I got first class honours! The highest possible! Go me! :D

Relief is a word that doesn't do justice to how I'm feeling right now!

Kill the annoying f**cker!

2005-06-02T17:47:00.000+01:00

Finally, someone did-in the Crazy Frog!!

The Tyranids are coming!

2005-06-02T17:22:00.001+01:00

The Tyranids
Click for larger image

Work + Moving = Stressed!

2005-06-02T17:04:00.000+01:00

I'm just back form where I'll be working come June 13th. I had to hand in a few tax forms and sign a few contracts (including a NDA). All this "official" paperwork is starting to do my head in! And I know I will be doing it for the rest of my life, it's just that contratcts are really, really boring!!

And I'm moving. The landlady is selling the house, so we have to move. Luckily she has another house we can use for the summer until we find somewhere else. But moving is such a bitch. I really couldn't be arsed packing, cleaning and fixing.

All-in-all, this leaves me as one stressed Grandmaster! And I feel a headache coming on... argh!!

Towel Day

2005-05-25T16:59:00.000+01:00

Today is Towel Day! I hope you have yours with you!

Finished!!

2005-05-24T19:49:00.000+01:00

Thank God! Finished college! (hopefully, pending results) I will soon have letters after my name! Nice one!

And so to war...

2005-05-23T18:57:00.000+01:00

Have you ever had the feeling that no matter what you do, whichever way you turn, it'll never be enough, things will never go back to the way they were?

My head is spinning, I'm trying to make sense of all the BS but I can't. It feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall.

And the worse thing is, I know I'm in the wrong. It's all my fault. And I still can't do anything about it.

I'm just a bit of a prick really I guess.

My head hurts...

2005-05-23T15:28:00.000+01:00

It's all gone pear shaped again, I can't see the forest for the tress.

Bad Sign

2005-05-20T16:15:00.000+01:00

Bad Sign

The simple ones are always the best! ;)

So very very tired!

2005-05-18T20:48:00.000+01:00

I got two hours sleep the night before last. I was studying until 3.30am and then got up again at 5.30am to continue studying! The exam was at 9.15am and it went ok (60%-70%)

So last night I went to bed reasonably early (around 11pm). I slept right through the night and I only got up this morning (afternoon!) at 1.15pm! Hooray, a good sleep! But now I'm exhausted again! And it's only 8.50pm. I've only been awake for 8 and a half hours!!

Sooo sleepy! Zzzzzzzz............

Changes...

2005-05-18T20:47:00.000+01:00

I've been making some changes to the site, changing the HTML and CSS. If the site gives a problem displaying in your browser, please let me know, thanks!

DC unveil new logo

2005-05-18T16:44:00.000+01:00

DC's old logo

DC's new logo

DC have reveiled their new logo. The new "DC" in a swirling vertex and star will replace the old logo of "DC" surrounded by four starts in a circle on all DC media, starting with "DC SPECIAL: THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY #1" this month. The old logo had been in use since the mid-1970s

Almost there

2005-05-18T15:11:00.000+01:00

I'm almost finshed college!

It's really hard to believe that I'm almost finished my full-time education. I've been doing this since I was five. That's 16 years. 75% of my life so far. And it's nearly over. Ooooh, scary!

Just two exams and a presentation to go. I really hope they go well.

And then it's on to work... oo-er!

JLA / Avengers

2005-05-17T17:57:00.001+01:00

Avengers United #35	Avengers United #36
Avengers United #37	Avengers United #41

New Releases from Panini UK

2005-05-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

Avengers United #53

Batman Legends #21

Avengers United #53
Reprints:
- Avengers (vol.3) #60 "World Trust Part 4: Chaos and Order"
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Kieron Dwyer

- Avengers (vol.3) #61 "The Powers That Be!"
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank

- Avengers (vol.1) #108 "Check.. And Mate!"
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: Don Heck

Batman Legends #21
Reprints:
- Batman #628 "As The Crow Flies" Part 3 of 6
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Dustin Nguyen

- Batman #596 "City On Fire"
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Scott McDaniel

- Detective Comics #571 "Fear for Sale"
Writer: Mike W Barr
Artist: Alan Davis

By best friend, betrayed

2005-05-09T16:31:00.000+01:00

This is NOT a storyline, this actually happened

From Wrestling-Edge.com

Edge (Adam Copeland)

Lita (Amy Dumas)

Matt Hardy

Valentine's Day was supposed to have been a special time for Matt Hardy.

Recovering from knee surgery, he was enjoying being away from the wrestling industry. For the first time in his life, he says he was able to breathe.

"It was so nice. It was something I wasn't used to."

More importantly, he had been looking at engagement rings during his time off, and was considering the real possibility of proposing marriage to longtime sweetheart Amy "Lita" Dumas.

Hardy was even preparing to have his large back yard fenced in. He could envision a bunch of dogs and kids frolicking in that yard. He thought he and Amy would complete the perfect picture of a happy, normal couple who just happened to have not-so-normal jobs.

"When Amy would come home those first few months, we'd hang out and do things together. It was very cool."

It was, indeed, a welcome change of pace from the grueling road schedule the couple maintained in the wrestling business. They had known one another for six years, and it had gotten serious the past four. The injury break had afforded Hardy the opportunity to literally stop and smell the roses.

"For those first couple of years, we casually dated and went out. But as time went on, and especially after we started living together, we sort of organically grew closer together and fell into love. It just felt natural."

Hardy thought it was time to make their commitment an even longer-term arrangement, and planned on popping the question to the WWE diva on the most sentimental of holidays.

"I started looking at rings after the first of the year. I was thinking about seeing if maybe Amy wanted to get married. It was going to be great. It was something we had discussed before, and I thought the time had finally come."

Hardy's voice trails off as he wistfully ponders his next thought.

"Then all of this happened."

What followed was something far different than anything Hardy could have even contemplated. In the ensuing weeks, not only would he be fired from his dream job with World Wrestling Entertainment, his dream relationship would go up in flames as well.

"This has definitely been the hardest period in my life," the 30-year-old wrestler said last week, still smarting from a course of events that has left him wondering exactly what went wrong.

The nightmare began when Hardy discovered that the woman he loved was having an affair with one of his closest friends in the wrestling business. Amy and Adam "Edge" Copeland had been traveling together while Hardy was back home recovering. He didn't have a problem with the travel arrangements, feeling that his friend was as good a candidate as any to watch over his girlfriend.

According to Hardy, he had no clue of the deception until Lisa Ortiz Copeland, Adam's wife of just several months, discovered some strange text messages between the two on her husband's phone and confronted Hardy with her suspicions.

Dumas had no choice but to admit the relationship after Hardy intercepted a series of telling messages from Copeland on a cell phone she had hidden from her live-in companion. Stunned and angry, Hardy asked her to leave his North Carolina home.

Once word of the wrestling love triangle surfaced on the Internet, Hardy says he felt he had to address the situation and comment publicly. He called Copeland and told him he was going to slap him across the face when he saw him.

"I talked to him a few days after that, but it came to a point where that was it. I had nothing else to say to him." Despite the crushing blow to Hardy's personal plans, he still had a job waiting for him with WWE. Or so he thought.

Nearly fully recovered from surgery last August to repair a torn ACL, Hardy was poised to return to the ring shortly before Wrestlemania 21. He looked forward to coming back with a renewed vigor, some new moves in his mat arsenal and his own creative ideas for a character change. He assured officials he could co-exist in the locker room with Dumas and Copeland. If WWE officials had any reservations, he was willing to be sent over to the Smackdown roster in the upcoming draft lottery.

WWE, however, had other plans for Hardy. Talent chief John Laurinaitis notified him that the company was looking at new talent and wouldn't be renewing his contract. In one fell swoop, he says, his dream girl and dream job seemed to all vanish in thin air.

Hardy didn't buy for a minute that the company was looking at new talent. He knew he was the odd man out and the most expendable of the three. While he was told his release wasn't connected to the domestic situation, he firmly believes it was politically motivated. He adds that his relationship with Laurinaitis hadn't been particularly smooth.

"We haven't been the closest of friends ... This obviously was the easy way out. But it was very bad business."

WWE found out quickly that it was very bad business. Hardy's poorly handled release prompted an outpouring of support for the Cameron, N.C., resident, including a petition with more than 20,000 signatures, along with growing anti-Edge and Lita sentiment at the arenas and even inside the locker room. The two were lustily booed at venues from New York to London, with WWE officials scratching their heads and wondering what to do about the situation.

Hardy contends the company should have been more concerned at the onset instead of going for the quick fix and releasing him. He says he is disappointed that WWE didn't handle the situation in a more expeditious, forceful and fairer manner. With company officials fearing a potentially explosive situation backstage, Hardy was advised to stay away from the arenas.

"I'm not saying they condoned it (the relationship), but they didn't say don't do it. For me, who was sitting at home, to be asked not to come to the house shows and to be kept out of the loop, was driving me crazy. If they would have sat the three of us down and talked about it - this is what we want, this is what we don't want and this is the situation - that would have been different. Instead they let things go on as they did and didn't do anything about it. If you don't address the situation, it just doesn't go away."

Hardy considered himself a model employee who had always gotten along with his colleagues and his employer.

"I'm a guy who's pretty respected. I've always gotten along pretty well with people. I've never had any problem with WWE. I've always done whatever they've asked me to do. But they chose to shut me out. "I wish JR (Jim Ross) would have been involved in the situation. JR is the one who brought Jeff and me in originally, and I loved JR. I have nothing but good things to say about him. Vince (McMahon) also has been really been good to me all of these years."

Time heals all wounds, but Hardy says the events of the past few months may take a while to get over. He says he can forgive Amy, who has apologized, but can't find it in him to have much mercy for Copeland.

"I had considered Adam one of my closest friends - the kind of friend you could trust your life with. It seems like he very much had an agenda going into it. I think there were things he did to lead Amy on and to get inside her head. Adam was leaving messages telling Amy he loved her, that if she stayed with me, he wouldn't be able to sleep at night. He was trying to put a guilt trip on her."

Hardy says he still has a hard time believing that Copeland, whose wedding he and Amy attended last October in Tampa, could betray a friend. Matt and brother Jeff were involved in one of WWE's most memorable tag-team programs with Edge and Christian (Jay Reso) during the height of the company's "Attitude" era. That series included a 2000 triangle ladder match also involving The Dudleys that was hailed as one of the greatest matches in Wrestlemania history, along with another ladder match at the 1999 No Mercy pay-per-view and several innovative TLC bouts that put both teams on the map.

"It's just a tough situation," laments Hardy. "Not only on a personal level but a professional level. Amy and I were a professional couple on TV. Christian has known Adam all his life, and he told him what he did was just wrong. It sickened him. Your true friends will tell you what they believe is true."

Hardy believes his ex-girlfriend simply got in over her head and didn't know how to get out of it.

"Amy's been very apologetic and remorseful. She knows she did wrong and she's been trying to correct things in some ways. Adam has not shown any remorse or offered any apologies."

Hardy says Copeland even accused him of slashing his tires at a recent house show.

"Without even being asked about it, I was specifically blamed," says Hardy. "There have been other things as well." Hardy believed he was immune to the sobering pro wrestling reality that most couples do not survive the rigors and temptations of the business.

"I definitely thought I was immune from it, but it came from someone who was supposed to be one of my closest friends in wrestling. Adam and I had built our careers off one another in the formative stages. Everybody there were tight friends. A good person just doesn't do stuff like that. That's just the bottom line.

"I would have loved for Adam to have been honest and come up to me and admit he made a terrible mistake, that he did things he shouldn't have done, and that he was going to stop and let me try to get my relationship together. But that just wasn't the case."

Hardy says Copeland's estranged wife is ready to move on her with her life as well.

"I think Lisa's depleted after expending all her energy and emotion on this. Right now I think she's saddling up for a real nasty divorce. She just wants to get through that and move on with her life because she has been so mentally tortured."

As for Amy and Adam, Hardy says that relationship appears to be short-lived.

"They're not boyfriend and girlfriend by any stretch of the imagination. Amy is just trying to find within herself what she needs to be. I think Adam has issues. I don't think he knows what love is."

Hardy and Dumas still speak occasionally. Things are different now, but he admits there are still feelings.

"Love isn't a switch you can turn on and off," he says. "You just can't get rid of it, regardless of the circumstances, if you truly love someone. It's just a real awkward situation."

Hardy also won't rule out an eventual reconciliation. Borrowing an old wrestling line, he says, "Never say never."

Despite making some bad decisions early on, says Hardy, he's making more logical ones now, trying to use his head more than his heart. He's lost two of the most important things in his life, but he's far from giving up.

"I have to pick up the pieces and move on. I have to get back to being Matt Hardy."

Hardy, whose non-compete clause with WWE expires July 10, says he has been overwhelmed by offers to work dates for other promotions.

"I guess the most natural thing to do would be to do some stuff with TNA. (Brother) Jeff's down there. I think Ring of Honor has a cool little niche in the business, and I might do some stuff with them. It's not like I'm not going to be busy."

Hardy says he'd also be interested in working in a creative capacity with TNA. "I'd like to be the guy to help contribute day-to-day ideas and to work with the younger guys. There are a ton of things that I've learned over the years. It's not just about Matt Hardy. I'm one of those people who want to give back and see other people do better. I'd like my legacy to be remembered as a guy who was more about giving back to the business than being selfish about the business."

Hardy says he has received thousands of e-mails from fans who have been in similar positions and are empathetic to his plight.

"It's amazing how many people have rallied behind me. I know everyone likes to discredit the Internet wrestling fans, but it was refreshing to have so many fans rally around me, regardless of it being right or wrong. It was an emotional situation, and their support was very flattering. It wasn't about Matt Hardy the performer. They sympathized with Matt Hardy the person. To me, that's on a different level. It's beyond fan support - it really shows their support for the human being."

RAW tonight

2005-05-09T14:11:00.000+01:00

From WWE.com

The Gold Rush Tournament

The pressure will be on as the remaining Gold Rush Tournament contenders battle while only two wins away from facing Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Edge will face Shawn Michaels as a bitter rivalry is renewed. Who can forget their brawl all around an arena on RAW or their match at Royal Rumble. Both men are on impressive win streaks, but one will have to end short of being the No. 1 Contender. Edge has already indicated that he’ll leave it all in the ring because he sees this tournament as the key to his first world championship reign. It his words, to have two guaranteed World Heavyweight Championship opportunities would be “money in the bank.” Can HBK tune up the band and turn away Edge?

In the other huge semifinal, The Rabid Wolverine will try to rip into The Big Red Monster. With drastically different approaches to a match, the winner will likely be the Superstar who dictates the pace and style. If Kane can apply brute force, he’ll likely advance; if Chris Benoit can cut Kane down and apply his crippling submission arsenal, he should be one step closer to his second World Heavyweight Championship.

And we’re sure to hear from Triple H, who was disgusted with Batista for his role in The Game’s match last Monday. Where does Evolution go from here?

Ultimate Fantastic Four #1

2005-05-09T13:44:00.000+01:00

Ultimate Fantastic Four #1

I bought Ultimate Fantatsic Four #1 yesterday. I sheepishly will admit that this is the first Ultimate title that I have bought. After reading this one, i can excitedly tell you that will be buying other Ultimate titles from now on! All this and the FF didn't even show up in this issue!

My Warhammer 40K army

2005-05-07T12:54:00.000+01:00

The Dark Avengers

Dark Avengers Chapter Badge

The following report has come from Cadia...

**BEGIN TRANSMISSION**

TO: Inquisitor Larkla (Ordo Malleus)
FROM: Inquisitor Thundrus
SUBJECT: The Dark Avengers
RECEIVED: 999.M41
CROSS-REFERENCE: Recent history of Imperial Forces on Cadia
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Ignorance breeds obediance.

The Dark Avengers 3rd Company, lead by Chaplain Horenduz, has arrived in the Cadia sector as part of their Crusade of Absolution.

The Dark Avengers are a second founding chapter, originally part of the Ultramarines Legion. The chapter still has very close ties with the Ultramarines as the Dark Avengers' home planet of Darkav IV is very near to Ultramar (cosmically speaking, of course.)

The 3rd Company undertook their Crusade of Absolution following the Armageddon War. The Dark Avengers were attacked and almost destroyed by a force of Ork Speed Freeks very soon after making planet fall on Armageddon and had to make a very hasty withdrawal. Chaplain Horenduz ordered that the company undertake a 100-year crusade to absolve them of this stain on their honour.

The Dark Avengers stand ready to help anywhere they can, and are eager to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Holy Emperor of Mankind.

**END TRANSMISSION**

Superman Returns

2005-05-07T12:25:00.000+01:00

That's right! Superman is returning to our screens sooner, rather than later. And below is a sneek peek at his costume. Is it just me or those he look like a tool?!

The NEW Superman
click for bigger image

I mean, X-Men and Spider-Man both proved that you don't have to stick religiously to the comic book version of the costume to make it recognisable. And the lame attempts at updateing the costume (e.g. the belt) just show what they could have done...

The "Mark" in me

2005-05-06T16:52:00.000+01:00

I remember watching wrestling as a very young child. I saw Hulk Hogan versus Randy Savage. I remember being told by my cousin that Hogan was "soooo cool!" Unfortunately, I remember little else...

nWo - new World order

I really started watching wrestling in 1996 when the new World order was formed in WCW. Oh how I pissed off I was, but strangely delighted, as I watched Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall run rampant all over the WCW. How angry I was when The Giant joined their ranks. How excited I got when Sting finally made a stand. And how much I loved watching Goldberg kick Hogan's ass all over the arena to finally win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from him...

Triple H

But alas, those days are over. Now, unfortunately, I'm in the ranks of the Internet fan. The fan who knows the real story behind the TV story. The fan who hates Triple H, not because of the heel character he is playing, but because of the backstage politics he uses. The fan who grows infuriated when the writers stall or destroy a promising young career by given them a lousy gimmick (Decon Batista anyone?)

Oh how I long for those days when I could just sit down in front of the telly and unmercifully boo the badguys, cheer the goodguys and not worry about how the writers were taking away from someone's character with this stupid storyline. Oh well, I guess I'm just too old for all that. Sigh....

New Ultramarine Squad!

2005-05-06T16:19:00.000+01:00

GW has finally gotten around to releasing the Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veterans. On the GW news page we are given a sneak preview.

I like them, but does the one on the left remind anyone else of an Iron Hand? That was the first thing to strike me about it