Picture courtesy of Draw!

Earlier today Newsarama broke the news that industry legend Mike Wieringo had passed away from a heart attack. Wieringo was probably best known for his runs on The Flash (where he co-created the character Impulse) and Fantastic Four, both with writer Mark Waid. Most recently he had just finished up a run on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man with Peter David and the miniseries Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four with Jeff Parker. Mike was regarded as one of the nicest, most humble guys in the business. He was only 44. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his friends and family.

For more details, please read the original Newsarama article here.
UPDATE: Newsarama has also added a few words from Mike’s friends and colleagues Mark Waid and Tom Dezago here.

Can lightening strike twice? And by asking that I don’t mean can another toy become successful movie, I mean can a director of critically panned fair win over legions of fans by balancing a mainstream and hardcore audience?

Stephen Sommers, the man behind the Brendan Fraser “Mummy” movies and the absolutely dreadful Van Helsing is now rumored to be the pick for directing Hasbro’s GI Joe.

Now Transformers essentially had its hardest work ahead of the effects team: making convincing characters came easy once you were convinced they could be real. GI Joe has some great characters too, but they are merely human, and it’ll take more than a guy dressed like Snake Eyes who doesn’t talk to get audiences to show up. Theres also that huge problem of this being a military movie and keeping it safe for kids. Transformers got away with all the violence and gunplay because it never showed a drop of blood and most of it was between non-human performers. Lets not kid ourselves, the villains need to be Cobra Commander, Destro, and The Baroness leading thousands of disposable soldiers.

Is Sommers up to the job? I honestly don’t think so, but I’ve been surprised before when Bryan Singer dropped the ball on Superman and Michael Bay surpassed expectations on Transformers. Getting Mark Wahlberg would help, but this needs to be handled very carefully.

From IESB

Having Pikachu on hand and dozens of Pokémon in balls as items just wasn’t enough. Now we’re getting a Pokémon Trainer as a playable character!

True to Pokémon games, he doesn’t do any actual fighting, he merely commands Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard in battle. You can switch out between the 3 characters at will, but they share damage. Balancing the 3 will part of the challenge. Are they still allowed to use Pokéballs?

From Smash Bros Dojo: Pokémon Trainer

Oh, and before I forget, there is a Canadian Best Buy flyer showing Sonic with the cast of Smash Bros. Fact, Fiction, or just Wishful Thinking?