Wizard Magazine

[SuperJerk 0]

I'll make no secret about the fact that I think "Wizard" started to completely prostitute itself to Marvel and DC a few years ago. However, every once in a while I'll pick up an issue just to see what stuff they're covering.

 

I almost bought an issue tonight at the mall because I'm thinking about selling huge chunks of my collection on Ebay. I noticed two things right away though. First, the cover price was almost $6. Second, it was awfully thin.

 

Since it was in a plastic bag I couldn't check, but did they take out the monthly price guide or something?

 

The thought that that's what they might have done was enough to keep me from shelling out the $6. Can anyone answer this question for me? Anyone else want to share what they think of the publication as a whole?

[pochorenella 0]

I haven't checked Wizard magazine in a couple of months, but as far as I know they still have the price guide. As far as magazine content, it is true they focus mostly on Marvel and DC, but being that Image is going down the tubes, and Dark Horse the only remaining great option then I'm not surprised. Of course, most of the info in the mag you can find for free on the internet, but I think it's still a fun read anyway from time to time. The price is a little much, so that's a big consideration factor, but on occasions you can find some freebies, like complete comics inside. Not sure about the thickness, though. Seems the same to me all the time.

[SuperJerk 0]

Well, I can understand the wanting to mostly cover Marvel and DC, but do they have to completely kiss their butts all the time? They used to run negative articles/reviews about both companies that, but the last few issues I read it seemed more like a PR book for the two.

 

Wizard totally stepped over the line a few years back by willingly participating the the "Sentry" conspiracy.

 

Anyone else know for sure if they still feature a price guide?

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Well, I can understand the wanting to mostly cover Marvel and DC, but do they have to completely kiss their butts all the time? They used to run negative articles/reviews about both companies that, but the last few issues I read it seemed more like a PR book for the two.

 

Wizard totally stepped over the line a few years back by willingly participating the the "Sentry" conspiracy.

 

Anyone else know for sure if they still feature a price guide?

The magazine still has a price guide but it has been chopped down big time. Now only the current books get listed along with the more well known older stuff.

 

If you want to check out obscure books or even a series that just ended a few years ago then it probably won't be in it.

[tbondrage99 0]

Wizard still has the price guide but its complete shit. I would avid it at all costs if your looking to make a profit. If you want a good price guide then I suggest www.comicspriceguide.com (You can thank StevieKick for that one, hes the one who passed it on to me.)

 

As for Wizard, yeah I have been collecting them since #45 or so, I dont have all of them since then obviously but I do have alot, and yeah they have gotten alot smaller going from nearly 300 pages to a little less then 200 and the price has been uped a few bucks. It costs me over $8 now since Im Canadian. Still I cant get enough of Wizard, I love it. When I buy one I know that Im getting news mostly on Marvel & DC, I dont expect to get much news on Image, Darkhorse or any independant company. For that stuff I just look around online a little bit and pick up Wizards Annual "Wizard Edge" mag, which is just Indy stuff.

[Sass 0]

If you read Wizard from about the start of Image to the end of Onslaught, the changes the book endured are *very* clear. It's like watching a bread grow old and moldy.

 

Wizard's always been an industry whore. This was the same magazine that let Todd McFucker go ego tripping with his Notes From Todd feature when they first started out. The letters Wizard would post in it's early years was something else.

 

Iron Man vs. the X-Men in a "who'd win it all?" argument raged on for like a year while the "Carnage should have been smoked/saved" debate after Maximum Carnage became one of the most interesting things I have read from Wizard.

 

Those were the days...

[SuperJerk 0]

Do they still do that stupid casting call feature?

 

Sometimes it was good, like when they recommended Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor (this was a few years back), but mostly it as stupid. Of course, they were usually going more for resemblance than acting ability. Sometimes it was so bad I thought it was a joke. The worst is when they said Steve Austin should play Captain America, or Robert DeNiro as Wolverine.

[JasonX 0]

Do they still do that stupid casting call feature?

 

Sometimes it was good, like when they recommended Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor (this was a few years back), but mostly it as stupid. Of course, they were usually going more for resemblance than acting ability. Sometimes it was so bad I thought it was a joke. The worst is when they said Steve Austin should play Captain America, or Robert DeNiro as Wolverine.

I don't recall those since at least when I read the magazine they always pimped Howie Long as Cap and Mel Gibson as Wolverine. That being said, I do recall them pimping Eminem as Ultimate Magneto, which made me laugh and laugh and laugh at how retarded that was...........

[Guest netslob]

i used to read to read this all the time but gave up on it a while ago. i got tired of the CONSTANT shilling of guys like Kevin Smith, Alex Ross and Stan Lee, just to name a few. don't get me wrong, i like Smith as much as the next guy, but christ, the man could take a shit and Wizard would review it. just the rabid fanboy-ism it's sickening.

 

plus, i got a little sick of being called a loser every other page. the same grown men who literally drool over Codename: Knockout and Elektra have the nerve to call someone else a loser. oooo-kay. spend more time reporting actual news and interviews and less time sucking cock and unsticking the pages of your Catwomans and you might be better off.

[SuperJerk 0]

^Yeah, what he said.^

[pochorenella 0]

Iron Man vs. the X-Men in a "who'd win it all?" argument raged on for like a year

Of course you know Iron Man would kick all of the X-Men's asses...

[starvenger 0]

Wizard totally stepped over the line a few years back by willingly participating the the "Sentry" conspiracy.

I've heard stories that the Shamus family actually invested heavily in Valiant (v1.0). Which is rather interesting in hindsight...

[AboveAverage484 0]

Since it was in a plastic bag I couldn't check, but did they take out the monthly price guide or something?

Just rip the shit open dude.

 

I remember they had Howie Long as Venom/Eddie Brock one time, I thought that was a pretty decent choice.

[Vyce 0]

Iron Man vs. the X-Men in a "who'd win it all?" argument raged on for like a year

Of course you know Iron Man would kick all of the X-Men's asses...

Of course he would, because the X-Men are the most overrated superheroes EVER.

[starvenger 0]

All depends on the situation. Iron Man couldn't take on ALL the X-Men at once, but one on one or one on two, he'd come out on top.

[SuperJerk 0]

The thing about the X-Men is that they're supposed to be the underdog team. Magneto used to whipped their asses single-handedly. Ditto for Juggernaut. They're not heavy hitters. That's not their appeal. They're the guys who loose occasionally, but never give up.

[Sass 0]

The team would probably stomp Iron Man's hide but he's taken on the New Warriors, the West Coast Avengers, and has managed to defeat the Death-Squad in any variation it's come in. He wouldn't be helpless if he had to take on all of the X-Men teams. The numbers game would do him in though at some point.

 

I'll play though.

 

Wolverine would be a complete non-factor in this fight unless he could sprout wings and shred IM up in the air with boot thrusters blazing the whole time. Mind you, I'm doing this as a mano y mano deal but all someone would have to do is hoist Wolvie up in the air. He could strike IM from there and it'd be all over unless IM could shake the Canuck off him. Otherwise, IM is just a tomato can waiting for Wolverine to open him up.

 

The armor has multiple repulsor rays in it so Cyclops would be out gunned. Juking and moving around while trying to fire off an Optic blast just wouldn't work against a guy who can fly at mach 5 speeds. One beam < multiple repulsor rays. IM's out gunned many baddies and also has a nifty force field (ala Neo from the Matrix) where all he has to do is stick his hand out and the blast will detonate several feet away from him. Cyke would have no hope here.

 

IM's protected against mind fucking powers and has an environmental system set in his armor (or at least one variation) that would tear someone like Iceman a new igloo door. IM's battled Whirlwind, Blizzard, Firebrand and Vibro so he is battle tested with the weather elements.

 

Storm would get deep sixed along with Iceman.

 

Now, Colossus...he could be difficult. I don't think IM would have anything in his armor arsenal that could take the Russian down from long range. He'd have to get up in his grill. IM's fought guys like the Titanium Man, the Freak, the Crusher, and the Hulk and has managed to beat each one in a knock-down and drag out type style fight at least once. They're about on par with Colossus I'd say. This would be the fight that could rock IM's world since he'd have to use force and take the fight to Colossus. I don't see the Russkie pulling out the W. But that's only if IM doesn't slip up with a punch, which he'd get pummeled for severely.

 

Rogue wouldn't be an issue unless she sneaks up on IM. She will not beat him if they start pounding on one another. Her only hope would be to crack the armor open and pray she can drain some of Tony Stark's life force off. Rogue's goose is cooked here.

 

His armor protects him from getting mind fucked with so White Queen, Psylocke, and Professor X would not be able to do much here. I don't see the White Queen opening up a can of whoop ass on IM in her diamond skin state. Emma would need to look up another nose surgeon here if she tried to take the fight to IM up close.

 

Psylocke's toast. I don't think her legs are made of iron so I don't see her martial arts moves having much effect. Now, if we're talking about Betsy during her short Lady Mandarin days then this fight could lead to a whole new ball game...

 

Xavier is in a wheel chair. One repulsor blast to the dome and the old man is done.

 

Jubilee...please.

 

Gambit and Iron Man could be a *hell* of a fuckin fight. That's only if Gambit could charge up IM's armor. I don't think Gambit's overload power would be able to light up IM's hide and force him to ditch the armor so Gambit would need to tough it out here. So, this fight would be a lot like the Cyclops fight.

 

The cards, staff and whatever else Gambit could throw at IM would be the key towards getting a win here. Throwing the staff at IM and then throwing his deck of cards at IM could distract him long enough for Gambit to throw out something huge from his bag of tricks. But again, Gambit would be an easy target from the air and the multiple repulsor rays would light Remy up at some point. A valiant effort here.

 

Iron Man and Angel fought a *long* time ago, back when the X-Men were sporting the blue and gold mask outfits. Angel lost. But he did manage to almost take IM out after the boot thrusters gave out.

 

Flash forward.

 

Upgraded armor > skin color change.

 

This fight would be the ugliest one out of the bunch unless it was Archangel vs. Iron Man. The wing shards, depending on what material they are, could either make or break Angel's chances here. Unless they could pierce through IM's force fields and hit him where it hurts then I don't see this fight lasting long. This one would probably be the fastest one to wrap up.

 

Jean's dead so I'm going to ignore her here. Phoenix would end the fight without breaking a sweat. Jean Grey vs. Iron Man would end up like the other telepathic fights. No-contest. There are only so many dump trucks or STOP signs that Jean could mentally hurl at IM before he blasts her through one of those and finishes her.

 

The only member on the team that Iron Man would probably have the most trouble with is the Beast.

 

Beast is best at playing to his strengths while figuring out what his enemies weaknesses are. He can get the elevation needed to take IM down if they're fighting in a room or an area with things Beast could climb up. He has the strength and fighting ability to crack open Iron Man's shell. Beast has the best of both worlds, ground and elevation attacks, which could concievably box in IM and keep him planted in one spot. Long-range attacks would toast Beast. But he's a marvel when it comes to defense, such as dodging objects or laser rays, and he could *maybe* hold up the defense long enough for IM to have a mental block on how to take Beast down. That momentary opening would be Beast's only chance towards taking IM out of the air and sticking to him like flies on shit. He could *not* let IM's hands loose since Shell-head could hit him with a sonar wave blast like he's done before to guys like Venom and that would end Beast's rally right there.

 

This would be a hell of a great fight to read over though.

[pochorenella 0]

Nice analysis there, Sass, but you left out Kitty Pryde and her phasing powers that disrupt machinery. What's your take on that one? I seem to remember one time Shadowcat phased through IM and he was left almost frozen until his system rebooted or something.

[Sass 0]

Shiiiiittt, I can't believe I forgot about Kitty.

 

IM fought the Ghost who could phase in and out of places like the Sprite. But yeah, she'd be the sleeper in this fight for sure. But she'd have to get airborn in order to drop in on IM and drop him.

 

Nightcrawler is an interesting opponent too. I've never seen Nightcrawler's enemy teleportaion trip disrupt an armored adversary like it can do with other folks. I'm not sure if he could do much against Iron Man other than kick and punch. It's all about how he would use his teleportation abilities.

[Sass 0]

Did I miss anyone crucial from the X-Men?

[starvenger 0]

Did I miss anyone crucial from the X-Men?

Bishop. That would be fun until IM figured out Bishop can't absorb a fist to the jaw as well as an energy beam.

 

Polaris... I really dunno. Probably another close one. Not even close if her powers are amped up by whoever's writing her at the time.

 

Havok is about the same as Cyclops.

 

Husk could distract IM for a sec if he likes the jailbait.

 

Sage isn't exactly Cypher in terms of uselessness, but her talent is information, so one-on-one she's screwed.

 

Cable is probably SOL because his powers are mental. Dunno how IM holds up to TK though.

 

Northstar probably wins by hitting on Tony until he runs away.

[SuperJerk 0]

Cannonball?

[starvenger 0]

Cannonball?

Probably The Breeders' only mainstream song, but that's not relevant right now...

[JasonX 0]

IM's protected against mind fucking powers and has an environmental system set in his armor (or at least one variation) that would tear someone like Iceman a new igloo door. IM's battled Whirlwind, Blizzard, Firebrand and Vibro so he is battle tested with the weather elements.

 

That's a lie; the X-Men (Iceman and Storm in particular) have routinely been shown to be able to use the cold the fuck things up electronically through the old "Freeze it till it's sub-zero and then have Stomr zap it with a uber-lightning bolt" double-team.

 

Iron Man wouldn't stand a chance against said technique, he'd never see it coming and be too busy fighting the rest of the team to see Iceman and Storm's attack coming. Especially since Iceman is someone who's routinely protrayed as a joke in combat; he'd fuck Iron Man up bigtime.

 

Rogue wouldn't be an issue unless she sneaks up on IM. She will not beat him if they start pounding on one another. Her only hope would be to crack the armor open and pray she can drain some of Tony Stark's life force off. Rogue's goose is cooked here.

 

If it was pre-Invasion Rogue I'd say the follow: Rogue is a fucking wild card here since not only would she absorb the powers of any KOed X-Men Iron Man might beat but also the fact that she's probably the best fighter of the group since unlike Wolverine, she can fly and is invulnerable.

 

But since Rogue no longer possesses ANY power other than her absorbsion powers, she's fucked unless she hides out until Tony has KOed half the team and absorbs her KOed teammates powers and goes after Tony, at which her chances of victory depend on which powers she steals.

 

Gambit and Iron Man could be a *hell* of a fuckin fight. That's only if Gambit could charge up IM's armor. I don't think Gambit's overload power would be able to light up IM's hide and force him to ditch the armor so Gambit would need to tough it out here. So, this fight would be a lot like the Cyclops fight.

 

The cards, staff and whatever else Gambit could throw at IM would be the key towards getting a win here. Throwing the staff at IM and then throwing his deck of cards at IM could distract him long enough for Gambit to throw out something huge from his bag of tricks. But again, Gambit would be an easy target from the air and the multiple repulsor rays would light Remy up at some point. A valiant effort here.

 

It takes time for Gambit to charge up large items so for him to charge Iron Man's armor would require getting close to Tony AND being able to hang onto Tony long enough to explode the armor; that being said, Gambit's would only work best as cannon fodder to destract Tony while the rest of the X-Men prep a big-time attack on Tony.

[JasonX 0]

Sage isn't exactly Cypher in terms of uselessness, but her talent is information, so one-on-one she's screwed.

 

Not really, as Sage wouldn't dare fight Tony hand-to-hand; she would hang back and serve as de-facto team leader, co-ordinating the attacks and keeping Iron Man off-guard so Storm and Iceman can do their one-two ice-zap number on Iron Man.

 

If anything, Tessa is the lynchpen of any X-Men beating Iron Man scenerio; she's the only one who would have the brains to come up with a plan and actually have everyone carry it out rather than running towards Iron Man and fighting without any sort of strategy.

 

Kitty

 

I doubt she could do any damage; after fighting the Ghost I would assume that Tony has anti-phasing technology installed in his armor that would zap Kitty if she tried to fuck with the armor/phase Tony out of the armor.

 

Cannonball

Cannonball would be a non-factor since Iron Man would be able to outsmart Sam and beat him like a government mule.

[Sass 0]

The Weather couple wouldn't have a chance here.

 

That's a lie; the X-Men (Iceman and Storm in particular) have routinely been shown to be able to use the cold the fuck things up electronically through the old "Freeze it till it's sub-zero and then have Stomr zap it with a uber-lightning bolt" double-team.

 

Iron Man wouldn't stand a chance against said technique, he'd never see it coming and be too busy fighting the rest of the team to see Iceman and Storm's attack coming. Especially since Iceman is someone who's routinely protrayed as a joke in combat; he'd fuck Iron Man up bigtime.

 

I covered this as a one on one deal without any preparation from either side. As a team, the X-Men could maul Iron Man. I'm sure Sage could come up with some sort of team game plan that would dismantle a lot of IM's offense. Rogue doesn't have a long range attack, even though she can fly, which would not really help her much against a flying weapons cache like Iron Man. She wouldn't be problem.

 

Iron Man would not have much to worry about from Iceman or Storm either. His armor's insulation systems are more refined than they were when he fought guys like Blizzard and the Meltzer, who used the same technique mentioned above. He's got experience against freezer folks going all the way back to when Jack Frost showed up in Tales of Suspense #44 (who later became the 1st Blizzard).

 

Havok is someone I forgot about. I'd have to think about how this fight would go. Last time I checked, Tony Stark wasn't related to the Summers family so IM could be in for some trouble here. Havok's got the goods to contain Shell-head here if he works at it.

[starvenger 0]

Sage isn't exactly Cypher in terms of uselessness, but her talent is information, so one-on-one she's screwed.

 

Not really, as Sage wouldn't dare fight Tony hand-to-hand; she would hang back and serve as de-facto team leader, co-ordinating the attacks and keeping Iron Man off-guard so Storm and Iceman can do their one-two ice-zap number on Iron Man.

 

If anything, Tessa is the lynchpen of any X-Men beating Iron Man scenerio; she's the only one who would have the brains to come up with a plan and actually have everyone carry it out rather than running towards Iron Man and fighting without any sort of strategy.

That I won't argue - Sage is essentially the Oracle of the X-Men - but if we're talking a true one on one, well, she might be able to locate weak points on IM, but it probably won't help her.

 

Havok is someone I forgot about. I'd have to think about how this fight would go. Last time I checked, Tony Stark wasn't related to the Summers family so IM could be in for some trouble here. Havok's got the goods to contain Shell-head here if he works at it.

Like I said, Havok is about the same as Cyclops. His plasma beams are more powerful than Cyclops' optic beams, but Cyke has more control over his blasts. Overall, it'd still take a fluke shot for Havok to gain an advantage.

[SuperJerk 0]

Has anyone said Juggernaut yet?

 

 

Anyhow, I finally bought a copy of Wizard this month. The articles were good, but the price guide was CRAP~! Talk about thin! All kinds of stuff was left out.