Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

By Mark Rodriguez The villain Nightfall has sent his assassin Stelth to kill the sensei of the Lee Brothers as well as steal the statue that contains the powers of the Dragon Force. Stelth also tricks the brothers into fighting each other, but Marion arrives to shoot the assassin's hand and save the Lees. Despite Nightfall's attempts to get the powers for himself, they would just go back into the statue. Now the dragon has some to life and seeks to kill its previous owners, Billy and Jimmy Lee! The issue opens with an innocent couple being harassed by a ruthless street gang. They grab the girl, and when her boyfriends offers them money to back off, they say they're doing this for fun, not for money, and stab the guy. Just then the dragon swoops down and attacks the gang. It swoops down again and one of the thugs manages to stab it, but it only makes it angrier. The dragon takes all of the men, and the poor couple beg for their lives, thinking they're next. ...

By Mark Rodriguez The villain Nightfall has sent an assassin that can turn invisible named Stelth to kill the sensei of Billy and Jimmy Lee. As they go to mourn at his grave, Stelth sends an army of thugs after the brothers, but used her powers to make them all look like clones of each other. Despite Nightfall now having the Dragon Power, the Lees are still able to defeat the huge gang with their own martial arts skills. However since all the bad guys looked like Billy and Jimmy, the brothers now think the other is a fake and will fight to the death, with Stelth waiting to kill the winner! The brothers face each other and suddenly their armor appears on them. They each think it's some sort of trick but it doesn't stop them from the fight that's about to break out between them. Stelth is still hidden but is also confused as to how they got their armor. Meanwhile Nightfall has gained the powers of the Double Dragons, but is confused because the power is going right ...

By Mark Rodriguez So I decided to hit up Amazon and track down the second issue of the Double Dragon comic series from Marvel. Well, the comic book version of the Lee Brothers train in the Dragon Dojo and have so-cheesy-it's-cool armor that they can summon by doing a high-five which gives them energy weapons and I guess better martial arts skills? The city is run by a super villain named Nightfall, who has super-powered henchmen working for him that have abilities like super speed and metal armor and such. Marion was kidnapped, but after the Lees managed to rescue her... they found out that this was all a diversion so that Nightfall can go to the dojo and steal their source of power. Now what will they do???? 'Double Jeopardy' opens up reminding us of how Sensei guards the Dragon Force that resides in Billy and Jimmy Lee, which was originally meant for only one person at a time, but it doubles since the Lees were twins. Sensei lies in meditation and senses...

By Mark Rodriguez The tables have turned in the fight game tournament scene, and no one knows who to blame. We all remember the flak that Marvel VS Capcom Infinite received due to not having any X-Men characters, but the final nail in the coffin was that Capcom chose not to feature it at Evo, one of the biggest fighting game tournaments of modern day. While Dragonball Fighter Z was the biggest game at 2018's Evo, it seems the game won't be at next year's event. Lately for reasons unknown, the hot fighting game produced by Arc Systems, the guys behind Guilty Gear and Blazblu, has been taken off of fighting tournament line ups. The whole problem lies in not knowimg who is behind this. Is it Arc Systems pulling a ban on this? Is it Bandai Namco causing the problem? The Dragonball brand belongs to Toei Animation, Shueisha and Shonen Jump. Did any of them have anything to do with this? Funimation dubs the voices of Goku and the gang, are they pulling this embargo?  In...

By Mark Rodriguez It seems whenever the Lee brothers jump from their classic video game into some other media, the powers at be always feel the need to add some sort of extra wild and wacky thing in their world, or turn them into super heroes. And I guess it is difficult to make a show, a comic, or a movie about what is basically a story about two brothers fighting off a gang to get their kidnapped shared girlfriend back. While in the games the story took place in a post apocalyptic future, the only thing that stood out as weird were the green Abobos. The live action movie gave us magical medallions and the cartoon gave them magic swords. And then we have this comic series... The comic opens introducing Marian Steele and her current predicament. She's an undercover cop trying to get deep enough to stop the evil organization led by Nightfall that has corrupted the once fair city of Oligopolis (couldn't they have picked a weirder name?). Marian is seen tied up insi...

By Mark Rodriguez With the Justice League away, the super villains of the DC will play, especially the Batman villains. The Arkham crazies took over Gotham, dividing the city as they see fit... until Bane arrived to take over. Despite Scarecrow leading the charge against him with Venom-powered Arkham crazies... Bane would defeat them all and take Gotham as his city. But now Batman has come back.... The comic opens with Commissioner Gordon thinking about how Bane now runs the city, making it dangerous even though the large evil has already passed. Outside a random guy is auctioning off food, water and medicine to the desperate people in the streets. Bane comes in and slams the guy in a back breaker. He tells the people that the power has returned to them and throws the goods at them. Cobb shows up and informs Bane that with the satellite feed and news back up soon any army will be coming to Gotham and they can't stand up to them. Bane tells him that the Talons a...

By Mark Rodriguez With Batman (along with the rest of the Justice League) presumed dead by the Crime Syndicate, all the Arkham crazies fought it out for control of Gotham. Bane enters the scene with a plan to take control with use of the Talons from the Court of Owls. Scarecrow and his men managed to steal most of them, but Bane used the last remaining Talon as his sidekick and has also started dressing as his own version of Batman as well. Now the Scarecrow has juiced up the Arkham crazies with venom and are ready for the final face-off against Bane. The story opens with Bane taking some time out in the medical supply room in Blackgate to heal his wounds. Meanwhile Bane's sidekick, Cobb, tells Bane's soldiers that the Talons they captured are all recovering and will be ready to help out soon enough. Outside, all the Arkham crazies, now even more insane and pumped on Venom have arrived and are about to attack the place. Cobb and the soldiers are unprepared ...

By Mark Rodriguez The Crime Syndicate has arrived and killed the Justice League and now the world belongs to the villains of the DC Universe. While Lex Luthor tries to gather some of the villains that don't want to see their world destroyed, like Black Manta and Captain Cold, to stop the Syndicate... there is a war brewing in Gotham over control as the Scarecrow and his men have captured several Talons and plan to use them to take over. Bane has come and has not taken the persona of Batman, and has one of the Talons, William Cobb, as his personal sidekick. As Bat-Bane and Cobb try to get the other Talons, Scarecrow and his gang have revived the Talons and want to send them after Bane. The story opens with Gordon and Agatha rescuing people from the Bane Tower. They worked out a deal with the Penguin to get these captives away from Bane. Meanwhile, the Talons are out on the loose and are killing all of Bane's men. Bane starts fighting the Talons, even when Co...

By Mark Rodriguez It's always fun to remember the games we played in our childhood. It was a different time when most of our concerns were things like getting that high score, or racking up wins in a fighting game for bragging rights. Before rent, bills, filing taxes and adult life. So with this console I'm going to look back at what were the first games we bought for each console, not counting the one that already came with it. NES- Nintendo Entertainment System- TMNT II The Arcade Game The NES we bought came with 2 controllers, the NES Zapper and Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt 2-in-1 Game. Mario was a lot of fun and I remember my dad loved playing Duck Hunt. There wasn't much urgency to get a second game at the time since there were tons video rental stores and we could play stuff like Mega Man 2, Castlevania, Double Dragon and so forth when we needed a break from Mario. It wasn't until we got TMNT II The Arcade Game for Christmas that year that we had a blast. ...

By Mark Rodriguez So this pic hit the internet and I swear after monents of me discovering it, my co-workers were already talking about it after discovering it on their own. I still don't know what to think, but he looks a little closer to Sonic than the silhouette we saw before with more human-sized arms and legs. His eyes are in fact seperated like the producers said they would be, since they feel it would look more realistic than the bizzare eyes Sonic (and Knuckles) have. On top of that the guys that worked on Sonic Team and even the creator of Sonic himself are not happy with the design and what was done about his eyes. C'mon guys, not even SEGA is happy. One of my co-workers said and I quote, "he looks like a failed Looney Tunes character." Again the movie will star James Marsden as Sonic's buddy and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. What are your thoughts on what could possibly be Sonic's live action look in the new movie coming out in 2019? Th...

By Mark Rodriguez Due to the Crime Syndicate killing off the Justice League, all the villains of the DC universe run wild,  and the ones from Arkham and Blackgate have taken over Gotham. Bane has come to take over and tries to release the Talon, but even so, the other villains don't fear him. He decides to wear the symbol that does strike fear in their hearts. He becomes the new Batman. The issue opens with Bane awakening the only Talon that wasn't stolen by the Man-Bats, William Cobb, who happens to be the same Talon defeated by Nightwing during the Night of the Talons story. Bane explains they're very similar and convinces him to help him 'make Gotham right again'. William suits up and they both head out to rescue the other captured Talons.  Meanwhile in Union Circle, the insane fighting among the Bat-Villains continue as Firefly fries the Reaper. The Mad Hatter gets attacked by some of the Blackgate prisoners and Firefly complains that he has...