Bryan Singer spilled the beans to Ustream that he has just signed on to direct the next X-Men origin tale:

We're not incredibly surprised by this move — he's been hinting at getting back involved with the X-Men series for months. Plus he made the only two X-Men films that didn't make us want to run through a plate-glass window. The director knows the characters and will at least attempt to make an engaging film. He even admitted to talking with Hugh Jackman, an incredibly invested actor in the franchise, about Wolverine.

But will it take place way, way, way back in the early days of the X-Men, as the rumors and comics source material would lead us to believe? Lauren Shuler Donner, X-Men Producer, has said very little on the matter, but did admit to Comic Book Movie that it was "way back when." But was mum on characters. Still, it's a safe bet that fleshing the past lives of the characters out would easily set up additional spin-off movies for each individual X-Man. Come on Iceman movie!

Despite being best-known as a member of the always-uncanny X-Men, Woverine actually started life as an antagonist for the Hulk in 1974's Incredible Hulk #180. Created by Hulk writer Len Wein and Marvel's art director, John Romita, the character was less a moment of divine inspiration than the much-discussed solution to the problem of how to help break the Canadian market; then-editor in chief Roy Thomas had asked Wein to come up with a new Canadian character, and he'd already come up with two possible names: Badger and Wolverine, both animals that lived in both the US and Canada.

("Wolverine" was chosen because it sounded close to "wolf" - much to the relief of Mike Baron, who'd go on to create a comic character called Badger eight years later.)

The Wolverine that appeared in Hulk was different from the one we've grown to love - or, at least, tolerate. For one thing, he was originally going to be a teenager whose claws were attached to his gloves whose only powers were increased senses and agility. Even by the time that he was drafted into Marvel's revamped X-Men a year later, his origins were in flux; X-Men artist Dave Cockrum remembered plans to reveal that Wolverine wasn't actually human at all, but an actual wolverine that had become mutated enough to walk and talk like a human (That plan was, thankfully, nixed by Stan Lee).

In fact, Wolverine's origins were left intentionally vague for the first seventeen years of his existence at the behest of X-Men writer Chris Claremont; he claimed to have a plan for where and when he was going to reveal it, but someone else beat him to the punch. 1991's Weapon X (by Barry Windsor-Smith) was the first stab at explaining Wolverine's origin, showing readers just how Wolverine ended up with a metal skeleton in the first place. Even that didn't explain everything, however, and those waiting to see more had to wait another decade.

With the character still maintaining a fanbase despite Marvel's other misfortunes (including, but not limited to, bankruptcy and almost destroying the comic book direct market due to an ill-considered distribution scheme), new Marvel bosses decided at the turn of the century to go for broke in an attempt to create an event so big that everyone would pay attention - and, more importantly, buy their comics. Origin, a six issue series written by Paul Jenkins from a plot by Jenkins, Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada and Marvel president Bill Jemas, didn't just reveal Wolverine's true age, it also hinted at the truth of his relationship with longtime nemesis Sabretooth (half-brothers) and showed the first time Wolverine discovered his powers... which, in true tragic fashion, were to avenge the death of the man he thought of as his father by killing his birth-father. The series was a sales success, and spawned an ongoing series spin-off, Wolverine Origins, which continues to explain the character's long-abandoned past.

That doesn't mean that someone can't come around and add some new wrinkles, of course. And that's what Heroes' Jeph Loeb did in 2007, when he revealed that Wolverine just might be part of a subsection of humanity that evolved from animals other than apes... making him, potentially, a mutated wolverine after all. Some ideas, apparently, can't even be quashed by Stan Lee.

Hello, young Cyclops. And yay for more Gambit dance-fighting. It looks like these throw down battles are going to be pretty all-over-the-place spectacular. Sabretooth is still selling me on his dedication to destroying Logan's life (especially with his crazed wall-scaling fighting maneuvers). But my question is, since everything that is going to happen in this movie is pretty much explained in the trailers, is this whole movie just about the fights and the Deadpool jokes? If so, hopefully some of Wade's wisecracks are going to be a bit closer to his Joe Kelly-era level of funniness.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine TV opens May 1st

Where does one even go to find a silky purple button-down shirt like that? Where is his trench coat? Someone give him a coat, and get him out of that velour vest thing.

Yes, I know that Origins takes place in the past, and his signature color is purple. But I thought the whole point of casting Taylor Kitsch was to make him a little more rough around the edges and a lot less pole-dancer-at-a-boyz-club. I'm aware that Gambit is a love-him-or-hate-him character, he's a bit annoying at times, but for those of us that love his silly Cajun quips and smarmy smile, please go make him put on another shirt.

Now that I've got my wardrobe steam out of the way I'm going to have to say that I'm terribly excited about Kitsch as Gambit. If you're a fan of Friday Night Lights (and I am) you know he's entertaining to watch, no matter how much they try and make you hate him (which is kind of perfect for Gambit). Between Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan, Jackman and Kitsch, I'm crazy excited about watching the mutant interplay between these amazing actors.

Origins is set to be released May 1, 2009 and the trailer is supposed to be released in front of The Day The Earth Stood Still next week. But besides the shirt, what do you think they'll do with Gambit's eyes?

[Empire Magazine via Cinemablend]

According to Elesewhere's sources, both Hood and Rothman are agitated with each other's creative input. Rothman went as far as to reconstruct an entire set that was deemed too "dark, dingy and somber." The executive then ordered the crew to re-do the whole thing with a brighter feel. Not surprisingly, Hood was none too pleased to discover the changes that were made behind his back.

Didn't everyone learn their lesson with Fantastic 4? Part of Wolverine's appeal is that he's not family friendly. He's a dangerous loose cannon that has an incredibly dark past. Especially if you're going to include the Silver Fox story line. I have no idea how you could make her grisly fate palatable in a shiny-happy story line.

Family friendly superheroes are hard to come by, and while Peter Parker may pass muster with the PG set, Wolverine isn't the hero you want for that task. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

Zombies!!! by Twilight Creations is one of the finest zombie games around. With the numerous expansions, you can fight for survival in a town, university, shopping mall, army base or spooky woods. Last Halloween we combined them all into one huge map that took up my whole living room and slaughtered the living dead in between trick or treater visits. Dead (again) zombies could be traded in for candy, so we had extra incentive.

Twilight Creations is a very zombie-centric company. They have a lot of zombie games, including Zombies!!! Soccer (unexpectedly fun) and this "What Would a Zombie Do?" spinner. Plod.

Zombie Fluxx by Looney Labs is the latest in their series of Fluxx card games. In any game of Fluxx, the rules and winning objectives change from turn to turn. Will you win by assembling a zombie baseball team, or gather your fellow survivors with a chainsaw and a can of gas and carve your way out? The word on the street is that Monty Python Fluxx will be coming out in the near future.

Last Night On Earth by Flying Frog Productions looks like an awesome game that I wish I'd had more time to demo at Origins last month. Each player plays a different character with unique abilities, making their way around the zombie infested town and trying to survive until sunrise. Expansion packs introduce new characters, while scenarios and a modular game board design make for huge replayability.

This lovely young woman allowed me to take a photo of her kick-ass zombie fashion while she was working at the t-shirt booth. Want.

There's lots of other zombie games out there. How do the other io9ers roll?

Beyond Protocol is a MMORTS, as their PR rep told me somewhat apologetically. That's a Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy game. Like a traditional RTS, players start with a basic home base where they begin to collect resources and start researching new technologies. As they build their armies and armadas, they'll expand their territory and ally themselves with other nearby players. Or try to conquer them. Combat can occur both planetside and in space - the demo screens on display at Origins showed large fleets of ships circling eerily in unison over futuristic cityscapes, then suddenly turning and flying off en masse.

Rather than creating a bunch of cookie cutter units, each player will use their technologies to design their own ships, with different types of weapons, armor, shields and other parts aligned in unique combinations. If you're not interested in warfare, you can put your designs on the open market and make a fortune as a trader, or set up an espionage ring and steal secrets from other players. A galactic senate will allow diplomatic and political strategies as well. When you log off, your units will take up defensive positions and use their AI to defend if you're attacked. Don't trust the AI? You can set up email or mobile alerts and direct your empire from afar.

Beyond Protocol is still in closed beta, but a monthly fee will be required to play once it goes live later this year. They're still refining the game and working on a comprehensive tutorial. That's a good thing, because this game looks very complicated. In their own FAQ, Dark Sky describes it as, "one of the most intense and complex games ever made." Probably not a "jump in for an hour and have some fun" type of game, but if you're looking for something really challenging and in depth, Beyond Protocol looks like it might have a lot to offer. [Image by: Dark Sky Entertainment]

If you've ever played Car Wars, the pen-and-paper game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat, chances are that you probably love it despite all its flaws. Now, imagine playing it on a 12' by 8' 3D city block filled with skyscrapers, ramps, an overpass and carnage, not to mention 15 other psychotic drivers. Scared yet? Drop your flaming oil and warm up the missile launchers - this is Car Wars: Rogue Arena.

I had a chance to talk with one of the Rogue Judges at Origins Game Fair this weekend; they're a gaming club based loosely in Chicago and Indianapolis, and they put on dozens of events at game conventions across the U.S. purely for the love of the games - These guys and girls are gamers who simply enjoy putting on events for others, and Rogue Arena is definitely their most famous event.

It takes about four hours to play (about two minutes in Car Wars time) and inevitably ends in a blazing, glorious crash of some kind. Using a slightly modified Car Wars ruleset, with movement templates scaled up to Hot Wheels size, the cars themselves have weapons and armor modded onto them, and various weapon effects like smokescreens (cotton balls) and oil slicks add to the overall mayhem. The judges goad and heckle the players, mocking anyone who dares apply brakes with comments like, "the management is not at fault if you forgot to take your anti-convulsants before getting into your car."

Rogue Arena is such a popular event at Origins that there was a line of people hoping to gain entry, even though all 16 seats had sold out four days earlier. This is the 8th year that Rogue Arena has been run at Origins, and the Rogue Judges plan on running many more. For next year, they're even considering expanding the city block, so be warned: Even more carnage is definitely on the way.

The goal of the game is to fire enough lasers, torpedoes and missiles to damage your opponents' ships. If you do enough damage, you can warp off the map and return with...a bigger ship! With more weapons! It's actually a scaled-up version of the out-of-print game Silent Death by Iron Crown Enterprises (I managed to track down a copy).





Silent Death is usually played as a two-player game, with each player commanding a squadron of small ships. The Red Shirt crew throws down old-school every now and then, but the larger-scale AstroSmash game (Up to 12 can play at one time) is a convention highlight for anyone who plays. ICE offers the large scale ships as resin models for $15 each, just in case you wanted to host your own AstroSmash party.





Red Shirt Games really brings the sci-fi to these events; In addition to all the space combat of AstroSmash, they also run Injurious Games, a 'Mech vs. 'Mech battle game (with a rather odd name, to be honest) that can also involve alien spiders and mutant space marines. One of their most popular events is the "Keep What You Kill" battle: You show up, the Red Shirts show you how to play, you and an opponent duke it out, and any 'Mechs you destroy during the game, you take home with you. That's pretty freakin' awesome.

Terrorwerks is a Live Action Role-Playing scenario put together at game conventions by PST Productions and Airsoft. You don't need any experience to enlist - they put you through a ten-minute boot camp before you hop on your jump-ship and head planetside. The whole scenario lasts about an hour and costs $18.

Your mission is to clear an off-world mining colony of alien critters. Problem is, your ship crash-landed, communications are down and the colony has no power. You need to escort the drones from Corporate and your precious engineers to restore systems and escape, all while fending off alien attacks. You're armed with an Airsoft rifle that shoots soft BB-like pellets, strapped into a tactical vest and helmet, and then it's, "Move ! Move! Move!".

The Terrorwerks crew let me tag along on a mission as an observer, but someone handed me a rifle and before I knew it I was shouting "Contact!" and firing on full auto along with the rest of the greenhorns. It's difficult to convey the awesomeness with photos, because the scenario takes place in a huge hall cordoned into rooms and corridors, darkened and filled with smoke and lighting effects. Throbbing, evocative sound effects add to the tension. What sets it apart from your basic game of Lasertag are the NPCs, the Terrorwerks Marines, Corporate suits and aliens who never break character. My moment with the guy from Corporate was amazingly cinematic, and running around in the flickering light with people yelling, "Medic!" was flat out the most fun I've had in ages. We may have been the most poorly trained squad of Space Marines ever, but most of us got out alive, and we even retrieved an alien egg. Terrorwerks will be offered at next year's MegaCon in Florida in addition to hourly run-throughs all this weekend at Orgins.

Martian Chess was created by Looney Labs (it's not just a clever name - the company's founder and chief designer is named Andrew Looney). The pieces come from their Treehouse game sets - translucent colored pyramids of varying sizes that can be used for a wide variety of games, including a space empire game called Homeworlds. Two to six players can participate, though for odd numbers or numbers greater than four, you'll need the special tiles pictured.

The key difference between Martian Chess and Earth Chess is the fact that you don't own or control the pieces you begin the game with. Whenever a piece moves into your quadrant (or quintrant or whatever), you gain control of it. Capturing a piece is worth points: 3 points for Queens, 2 for Drones and 1 for Pawns. Queens move like Earth Chess Queens, Drones move laterally one or two spaces, and Pawns move diagonally one space. The game ends when any player's quadrant is empty of pieces.

It sounds simple, but playing a few games reveals a great depth of strategy and the need for well-considered tactical sacrifice. The Looney Labs people let me in on their game, which we declared to be the Martian Chess World Championship (Earth Division). I lost. Andrew Looney developed the game after noticing that when Bill and Ted journeyed to heaven in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, the chess set in Heaven only had white pieces. That lead to the development of "monochromatic chess," which lead to Martian Chess.

Treehouse. [Looney Labs]