Hot List: Marvel’s Mobile Card Battle Game, Racism Diagnosis via Podcast, Assassin Anime

Marvel: War of Heroes

My name is Kurt Collins and I’m a geek. Being a geek brings along with it certain cultural expectations. In my case, those cultural expectations fall somewhere in the arenas of comics, role playing games, card games and technology. So imagine my excitement when Marvel finally released Marvel: War of Heroes.

Before all you real geeks get up in arms because of its deficiencies (the main one being that it’s a cheap Mob Wars knockoff as far as game mechanics go), let’s  look at the fact that we get to put heroes and villains on the same team so can get our PvP (player vs player) action on from our iPhones. And if that doesn’t make you happy for at least one week, then there’s nothing I will be able to do to persuade you. Bonus track here. -Kurt Collins

Yo, Is This Racist?

Probably! At least that’s the most common answer you’ll get from this new call-in advice show.  The Yo, Is This Racist? blog became a moderate success this year for dealing out hundreds of verdicts to racists. Judge, jury, and anti-racist Tumblr-executioner, Andrew Ti, came down on questions as diverse as “opposing interracial relationships” to “Tagg Romney” to “my co-worker calls me Asian Mike so I started calling everyone White Debby, White Joe, White Lawrence” (Cheat sheet answers: “the fu@k you goddamn think?”; “all those motherfu@kers”; “No”).  Now you can put a voice to the screed with the podcast! -Ike Sriskandarajah

Darker Than Black

If you’re a fan of anime shows like “Cowboy Bebop” and “Ghost in the Shell” then you’ll probably like “Darker Than Black“. It’s a recent (2007-2009), under-appreciated, two-season anime series (with four OVAs set in between) about Contractors in Tokyo. Contractors are individuals who possess supernatural powers, making them favored tools for various governments, corporations, and organizations to do their dirty work, such as espionage and assassination. I loved the show because its story is full of mystery and intrigue, the animation was great, the soundtrack was awesome, and the fearsome protagonist’s (a Chinese contractor named “Hei”) complex personality drove the series very well. Unlike well-known anime in the U.S., “Darker Than Black” did not appear on Cartoon Network or Adult Swim, which is how many anime became popular in this country. Fortunately, you can watch the show on the FUNimation Channel, Netflix, DVD, or Blu-Ray. -Adam Hudson