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First off I want to thank Stan Lee for standing up for the video game industry. The state of California is pushing a bill to criminalize the sale of “violent” video games to kids, and, in a letter to the gaming community, Stan urged fans to show the game industry their support.

“I’m writing to urge gamers everywhere to take a stand and defend both the First Amendment and the rights of computer and video game artists by joining the Video Game Voters Network (VGVN). My memory has always been lousy and it’s not improving with age. But it’s good enough to remember a time when the government was trying to do to comic books what some politicians now want to do with video games: censor them and prohibit their sales. It was a bad idea half a century ago and it’s just as bad an idea now.”

Read the rest of Stan’s letter here.

Today, Activision announced X-Men: Destiny, a new video game that will cast players as new recruits to the X-Men. No word yet on whether the game will place you as actual characters from any of the X-Men comics, but the game will feature an original story written by X-Men: Legacy writer Mike Carey. The game will be on display at the New York Comic Con, so we can expect more details on this mysterious new X-Men game soon!

Tuesday, SEGA finally released the first details on Captain America: Super Soldier, the video game adaption of the film Captain America: The First Avenger. There’s one word in that previous sentence that should scare you, that word being SEGA. Now, SEGA publishes tons of great games every year obviously, but sadly their record with Marvel licensed games isn’t very good. Of course hardcore Cap fans wont really care who’s publishing this game, but the hardcore Iron Man fans should warn them that, after the disappointment that was the Iron Man and Iron Man 2 games, Captain America: Super Soldier could prove to be a pretty disheartening experience.

But then again, we could all be surprised and Captain America: Super Soldier could turn out to be a “Captain America: Arkham Asylum.” In true comic book-film-video game fashion, Super Soldier will have its own story, differing from the film’s, and it’s written by Christos Gage, who you may remember as writer of Siege: Captain America, Civil War: House of M, and Union Jack. I wish I could say an actual Captain America writer could instill more faith in me for this game, but superstar Matt Fraction was responsible for the writing duties of the Iron Man 2 game, and it was still a bigger bomb than anything Tony Stark has in his arsenal.

The game, much like the film, will be set during World War 2 and will have you putting your red, white, and blue shield through Red Skull’s teeth in classic third-person action. Super Soldier doesn’t come out until next year, so the developers, Next Level, have plenty of time to make me look like an ass with my lack of enthusiasm, and I hope they do. If the game’s progress is as good as these screen shots look, then I can’t wait to play this game.

UPDATE: SEGA has released the first official trailer for Captain America: Super Soldier and it looks awesome! See it here!

If the big reveal of Captain America: Super Soldier is this week’s most exciting news, then the week’s most disappointing news is DC Universe Online being pushed back until next year. DC’s huge MMO was originally scheduled for a November release, but, as with most giant games, we’re being forced to wait another quarter. But it’s for the best, right? Developers should take as much time as they need to make a game as perfect as possible.

Hopefully you at least signed up for the beta. If you didn’t, it’s too late unfortunately, as Monday was the last day for sign ups, but to wet our appetites for the game, the amazing six minute cinematic trailer was rereleased with director and Jim Lee commentary. If you haven’t seen this trailer yet, for the love of God, click here and enjoy, then watch the commentary here. It’s worth the time. Also, Sony released a butt load of awesome screenshots of the awesomeness we’ll have to wait an extra four months for…thanks Sony.

Now these are a little old, but we’re going screenshot crazy this week, plus I’m just so excited about Batman: Arkham City I can’t stand it. I was a little skeptical and disappointed at the idea of the “Arkham City” at first. A portion of the city being made into a prison seemed a little goofy, and I was saddened at not being able to explore the entirety of Gotham City, but after reading the developers’ intentions for the Arkham City, I’m even more excited. If you missed out on the Game Informer article, you missed out on a lot. So until we get more info and some gameplay videos, here are the most recent Batman: Arkham City screens.

Does anyone else notice the slight Frank Miller influences on that last screen shot?

Yesterday, the final part of Valve’s FREE online exclusive comic Left 4 Dead: The Sacrifice went up. If you haven’t read it, holy crap, you’re missing out. And the best part is it’s FREE, so you have no excuse. Check it out at the official Left 4 Dead site. Our own Infinite Speech has an awesome review of the whole series; check it out here.

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Andrew Hurst
andrewhurst@comicattack.net