I have to admit that the shiny, metallic costumes of Odin and Loki, and the clean machine-worked stone of Asgard left me a little disappointed. Were these really the gods who inspired the Vikings to war? The same pantheon with trickster god who has three kids with a giant, two of whom are a serpent and a wolf? And also once turned into a mare, had sex with a stallion, and gave birth to an eight-legged foal that his dad rides around now? I guess I’m not a big devotee of technology-as-magic. But!

I have revised my position upon seeing this new shot, revealed today in the print edition of The LA Times (but not online, /shrug) and diligently scanned by Superhero Hype. I understand now.

Pixtar Wars (Sillof’s Workshop)

LA’s Rush Hour Puppet Show (The LA Times)

Video Games Keep Kid From Going Blind in One Eye (Kotaku)

Fictional Drugs and Their Real-Wold Equivalents (SciFi Wire)

30 Facts From 30 Games That You Don’t Know (1Up)

Mickey Mouse, With Bugs (Neatorama)

Lightning Strikes 3 Chicago Towers at the Same Time (Craig Shimala)

(image via Bleeding Cool, and why you should be nice to your letterer.)

We’ve reported before on Microsoft‘s lavishly planned E3 Project Natal event, which is going to involve a performance by Cirque du Soleil, and that press will not be allowed to bring electronics in.

Well, the show goes up tomorrow night, and the LA Times has some new details on what we’ll all miss, at least until someone inevitably uploads a shoddy YouTube video of it.

And yes, an elephant is involved.

Iron Man 2 will be upon us in less than a week (in fact, I’ve heard it may factor into my Mothers Day plans), and HollywoodChicago.com has a handy gallery up, collecting every official press image released by Paramount.

Most of them are familiar to people who have been following coverage of the movie, but rest assured, there are a few refreshingly new shots in here. Like the one above of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

Read on...

According to the LA Times, anyway, which says that the company is working on an comedic animated series based in the Star Wars universe. This isn’t the first time Lucasfilm has hinted at making a spin off series with a different tone from the movies, but it might be the first time that it actually succeeds.

In addition to Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, the creators of Robot Chicken (known for their superb Robot Chicken Star Wars specials), Lucasfilm has also brought Brendan Hay, a Daily Show writer, in for the project.

In the category of worst news to ever break on April Fools Day, rumors have been surfacing this week that Joss Whedon may direct the Avengers movie.

It was reported first at IESB, who took pains to stress that this was not an April Fools joke on their part. Now, The LA Times has done some digging and hear from their sources at Marvel Studios that this is partially true. No director for the Avengers movie has been chosen yet, but Whedon is on the short list.

Your first chance to grab Avatar on DVD will come next month on Earth Day, April 22nd. However, there is a twist.

On the one hand, this release is the bare-bones one. No special features.

On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times reports, “According to sources at Fox, “Avatar” will make history as the first Blu-ray new release from a major studio to hit stores without a single trailer or promotional content of any kind.” That’s right. Just a menu and the movie, so as to reserve the most disc space for all that less-compressed visual and audio data.

Hunting mammoths might not appear to be the most direct sign of global warming, but an article in the LA Times this week has convinced us.

“Russian scientists disagree over whether global warming is responsible. Some say yes, others are skeptical. But nobody argues that the permafrost is dwindling,” and as the Siberian permafrost disappears, it exposes the thousand year old remains of frozen mammoths, their bones and tusks ready for collection.

The comic-blogosphere has been abuzz lately, with everyone trying to figure out the purpose behind the guerilla marketing campaign “Stan’s Back!”  Ads in comics newspapers and online featured simple white text on a black background, with the first word written in imitation of Stan Lee‘s distinctive signature.

Speculation stopped yesterday, when Boom! Studios announced that they were behind the ads.  They are collaborating with Lee to create three new superhero series.  Lee will produce and create the character concepts, but the titles will be written by other writers, the first of whom is confirmed to be Mark Waid.