geekosystem

Chris Carlson is pretty good at creating 3D chalk art. Okay, less "pretty" and more "really." The videos of him doodling up things like the diamond sword from Minecraft are quite impressive, but his latest work takes the cake. It's not as large as some of his other projects, but Carlson's take on three of the helmets from the Iron Man movie franchise should definitely make you a fan of both him and the AWE me channel.

Prepare for the conspiracy theories, because here's today's most improbable story: Scientists have confirmed that a Buddhist statue, known as the "iron man," obtained by Nazis from Tibet is actually from space. Specifically, the thing was likely made from a massive chunk of the Chinga meteorite that deposited itself across the border of Russia and Mongolia somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago.

A new series of super hero-themed LEGO sets based on recent and upcoming comic book films may have just confirmed, if not revealed, key plot points from Marvel's next movie, Iron Man 3, and Zach Snyder's upcoming take on Superman, Man of Steel. A list of upcoming LEGO sets, on track to come out in 2013, feature Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Superman. Though some of the sets clearly have no relationship their film counterparts, (there's a Batman-themed set called "Aquaman on Ice.") the Iron Man and Superman-themed sets match up with rumored details about Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel. For the record, the rest of this post may contain relatively detailed spoilers about Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel. Proceed at your own risk.

A Taiwanese graduate art student won an art contest for creating the work of art seen above, a bloody, urine Iron Man. The name, unfortunately, is indicative of what the work represents, and what it was created with. One day when the student was taking care of business in the bathroom, he saw blood in his pee, the colors of which inspired him to created the bloody, urine for art purposes.

“Some of you may have wondered…How does a man like Batman afford to constantly update his crime-fighting technology? Where does his money come from? “Well, the answer is me.” That’s right. In front of a shocked crowd, Bruce Wayne returned to the city he called home after a mysterious absence (one chronicled in the pages of Grant Morrison’s multi-part epic Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne) to not only reveal he’d been funding Batman for years, but also that he planned to expand said funding to create the multinational organization known as Batman Incorporated. -- Alex Segura, in The Source, the official blog of DC Comics. It's funny, because the last time we checked, funding an international organization of highly skilled individuals who go around and beat up people that they don't like was ILLEGAL and admitting it would GET YOU IN TROUBLE WITH THE FEDS, Interpol, and several other organizations whose attention is, in a word, non-trivial. Also if I wanted to read Iron Man I WOULD READ IRON MAN.

Target's name is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy these days. Just to make sure that everyone has beef with them, the retailer has levied a snide, mocking blow at, of all people, moms who take the time to make charming homemade costumes for their kids instead of buying a cheap licensed knock off at some big box store.

When the Marvel/Disney merger was made official, a lot of people immediately plundered the wide ranging crossover potential, from Spider-Man in Kingdom Hearts to a Beast buddy movie. Today we see the first shamelessly tied in fruit of that union, in the form of a series of variant covers for Marvel's November titles, where ten of Marvel's biggest characters get reinterpreted Tron-style.

The Webcomic Model Works for Warren Ellis (Warren Ellis Dot Com) Guy Gardner Shares My Feelings On Recent Batman Plot Developments (Comic Book Resources) A Mr. Bill Game for iOS (Joystiq) Putting the President in Your Video Game (Kotaku) Fallout: New Vegas TV Spot (gameinformer) Iron Man Whines at Robots for Five Minutes (Marvel News) This Is A Clockwork Carl Sagan (Larriva) (pic via shirt.woot!)

Psychologist Sharon Lamb thinks that todays superheroes send the wrong messages to young boys.

There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday... Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity. When not in superhero costume, these men, like Ironman[sic], exploit women, flaunt bling and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.

The comic book heroes of the past did fight criminals, she said, "but these were heroes boys could look up to and learn from because outside of their costumes, they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities," she said.

In response to her statement, you could ask "Have superheroes really changed over time?" (Yes, everything does.) "Is there something about movies that requires superheroes to become more violent?" (No, they're just as violent if not more in current comics.) and even "Why is it a problem that superheroes are no longer clear cut examples of heroism?" (Who knows.)

But all of those questions allow Dr. Lamb to stand unopposed on one fundamental assertion: that all superheroes are for children.

Digital distribution: It's not just for video games anymore. Thanks to the iPad, there is now a platform perfectly poised to bring comic books to millions of people, without printing presses or shipping costs... and without physical retail stores. Comic store owners are waiting in patient apprehension for the comics industry to figure this out, and Marvel might be the first one to do it.

The publisher formerly known as Timely announced last Friday that they will be trying out their first simultaneous digital distribution. They will release the Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 on the iPad on the same day that it will go on sale in comic shops across the US, and a day before it would be physically available in Europe.

The 80-page annual will cost $4.99 from the shelf, but no one is really sure what the cost of the digital copy will be. The iPad price on other (older) Marvel comics is $1.99, but Marvel has said that the annual will be split into three "issues" for the iPad (it is three times the length of a regular issue). Marvel has declined to comment on whether this means the digital copy will cost more or less than the physical one.

But as long as we're asking for comments, Bleeding Cool has done a round up of comic retailers and their opinions on the move.

Robert Downey, Jr. went out to buy some comics the other day and was captured in the act by people with cameras. This is not normally something we'd spend a lot of discussion on, but there was one picture in particular that caught our eye. One that reminded us of the days when we found comic stores somewhat overwhelming, but at the same time desperately didn't want anyone to think we needed help. This one:

As Iron Man 2 blazed onto movie screens a few weeks ago, one of the foremost thoughts in audience member's heads was probably "Man, I wish I could fly like Iron Man!" (the other biggest thoughts were "Man, this movie needs less subplots!" and "Man, Scarlett Johansson should never wear anything that isn't a leather catsuit!") Well, the team at Feng-GUI has answered our prayers and found a safe way to turn a regular guy into Iron Man. You don't even need to stick a dangerous ARC-Reactor in your chest cavity to do it!

It didn't seem possible, but they found a way to make light-up shoes cool for people over 12 years old. The shoe revampers over at Diversitile have made several upgrades to the traditional Nike model and will soon help turn your feet into crime-fighting machines, complete with functioning arc reactors (and by functioning, I mean glowing). But with something like this, you know they'll be limited edition, so follow along at Diversitile vigilantly and take swift action. Just how Iron Man would.

They may not SHIELD (see what I did there?) your feet any more than a regular shoe, but when people see these bad boys on you, they'll know who they're dealing with. See below for a closer look at the shiny reactor tongue and the alternate color scheme that probably won't sell a single pair until the colorful batch runs out.

In fact, this War Machine suit was built in a month for about $4,000.  Now, for tha $4,000 model ther', you're not goin' to be able to fly, or shoot repulsor beams, or fire ammunition, and you're definitely not goin' to be able to fold it all up int'a suitcase.

But you've still got the motorized faceplate!

John Favreau has already dropped hints about what he'd like to do in Iron Man 3, but Black20 Studios is apparently impatient with the pace of things, and has developed their own trailer for Iron Man 4.  They have a certain vision in mind. And it involves James Brown, The Ninja Turtles, President Obama, Johnny 5, and mini arc reactors for everyone!  But mostly Rocky Balboa. Don't question, just watch.