Ben Cooper made cutting your mouth open fun

Stuck on what to wear for Halloween this year?

Remember those Ben Cooper costumes from the 1970′s? Made of extremely flammable plastic and featuring a hard shell face-mask held onto your face with think elastic, these costumes were famous for the wide variety of licenced characters you could dress up as from film, TV and comic books. What always got to me was that the chest usually depicted a cartoon image of each character and his name! Like Batman on a Batman costume with the word BATMAN over his head… I mean, the REAL Batman doesn’t have to do that, why should I?

But what I remember most about these costumes (aside from trying to wear them under my ‘street clothes’ in case I needed to change into a superhero on the fly) was the little gap in the mouth that I would habitually cut my tongue on. It was such a gestalt memory of my generation that it made it onto the Adult Swim cartoon Venture Brothers when hank dressed up as Batman.

Erick (Monsterama2000) is writing up some great pieces on the Ben Cooper costume phenomenon featuring some rarities such as the two above that I highly recommend, check it out by clicking on the banner below:

Fred Van Lente takes a closer look at what makes Taskmaster tick

Originally created by David Michelinie in the Avengers #195 (1982) to explain who trains the seemingly endless stream of goons working for the likes of AIM and Hydra, the Taskmaster has become something of a popular character thanks to his recent appearances in Avengers: The Initiative, Siege. He is now the star of his own 5 part mini-series by Hercules’ Fred Van Lente (one of my new favorite writers). Able to mimic any fighting style by use of a kind of superhuman photographic memory, the Taskmaster is like a one man army. Decked out in the weaponry of several Avengers such Captain America, Hawkeye, Mockingbird and the Swordsman, he us truly a force to be reckoned with. A pragmatist, the Taskmaster is hardly a master villain, more of a mercenary for hire.

The current mini-series focuses on a group called The Org who have put a price on the Taskmaster to protect their secrets. Seeking o uncover who has betrayed him leads the Taskmaster on a journey of self-discovery. Due to his unique memory, his origin has been a mystery even to himself, but not anymore. In the new mini, Van Lente is looking at not just the way Taskmaster fights, but the way he thinks too.

Via DigitalSpy:

Fred Van Lente has teased that the entire origin of Marvel Comics antihero The Taskmaster will be revealed by the end of his current miniseries.

The project has enabled Van Lente to add an extra layer to the intrigue surrounding the character by expanding the mythology surrounding his action mimicry powers.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to do with him, but then I came up with the idea that his super memory erases his old memories, ” Van Lente explained to CBR. “He’s very much in danger of losing any of the information he recovers about himself in this series.”

While the character originally appeared as a minor villain, he recently gained prominence as a trainer in the cancelled Avengers: Initiative and is to appear in that series’ spiritual successor Avengers Academy.

“Everything about Taskmaster’s origin will be totally explained, and you’ll learn who this mysterious enemy is that’s been spreading rumors,” Van Lente said of the miniseries.

The Taskmaster mini-series has been gaining a strong following thanks to the positive reviews. If you have been neglecting the series, this might be the time to start hunting down back issues and picking it up!

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X-Men Destiny revealed

Once the most successful franchise in comics, the X-Men has waned slightly in recent years. However, Marvel is looking to regain that top dog position (no doubt piggy-backing on the X-Men: First Class game on its way) with several new projects such as the new video game X-Men: Destiny in which players develop their own mutant in the Marvel Mutant-verse.

Released on next-gen consoles, the new video game by Actvision will feature a ‘rich, branching storyline that gives players ultimate control of their destiny.’ Written by Mike Carey (the man behind Lucifer at Vertigo and X-Menb: Legacy at Marvel), the game will seek to take the place of fan favorite games X-Men Legends I and II. This is a similar team to those behind the recent release Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions which also gave gamers more free reign in an already established Marvel Universe, so this may be a growing trend in Marvel video games.

Bookmmark this page for more announcements: http://www.herohq.com/xmendestiny

You can keep up with the game’s development by joining their forum here: http://www.herohq.com/forums/viewforum/72/

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