This morning, the ladies of ABC's The View were talking about a celebrity wedding. Happens all the time, right?

But the celebrities in question were the X-Men, not the Kardashians. And the wedding? It's going to be super-fast adventurer Northstar marrying his longtime boyfriend Kyle. Definitely not your typical talk-show fare.

While this storyline was likely in the works for months, the fact that Marvel chose to announce it now probably isn't just coincidence. Marriage equality and gay rights have been an ever-increasing concern in American cultural discourse, an the issue have become only more energized by President Obama's recent personal endorsement of same-sex marriages. So, Marvel's announcement of Northstar's storyline in Astonishing X-Men may just be a case of great timing.

However, rival publisher DC is playing coy with what may be even more ambitious plans. After top editor Dan Didio announced the news over the weekend, DC Comics exec Courtney Simmons confirmed today that they'll be reintroducing one of their "major, iconic" characters as a homosexual. The House of Superman isn't offering any teasers as to who it might be but that report at Comic Book Resources parses Simmons's wording to speculate that it'll be a male character. DC already has Batwoman as a new but prominent lesbian character.

As stated in this CBR article, Didio had previously said that DC's New 52 reboot wouldn't see reinvented characters changing sexual preferences. And there was an embarrassing moment in Northstar's fictional history where he was declared to be part fairy (as in the magical beings). Sigh.

Still, there's a sense that each publisher's trying to be on the proverbial "right side of history" with these moves, timed to hit during LGBT History Month. Of course, there's the naked hope that these plotlines deliver publicity, massive sales and sellouts in each case. But, mercenary motivations aside, if these editorial decisions get executed well, then they'll reflect a measure of the social justice that characters in Marvel and DC Comics spend so much time fighting for.

Oh, I'm putting money on Tim Drake, a.ka. Red Robin, being the gay character that DC brings out of the closet. He's not the current Robin but could still be called iconic, if you wanted to stretch. Who do you think it'll be?

Most pop-culture apocalypses crank up the volume, right?

Whether it's alien invasions or natural disasters, the end of civilization as we know it tends usher in a whole lot of noise pollution. So, the palpable silence left by mankind's near-extinction happens so quietly is one of the best things about The Massive.

Now, of course, you're not going to hear anything while reading this new comic by writer Brian Wood and artists Kristian Donaldson and Dave Stewart. It's on paper, after all. But the post-everything milieu that the trio ushers readers into feels eerily quiet.

The first issue of this Dark Horse-published series introduces readers to an Earth where a succession of freak ecological disasters have destroyed wildlife, coastlines and much of the world's socioeconomic structures. Navigating the seas of this broken world are the crew of the Kapital, led by Captain Callum Israel. Israel's the leader of the Ninth Wave eco-activist group and he's been looking to find the Massive, the Kapital's sister ship that's been mysteriously missing for years.

I love how the characters of the book are pulled from different nationalities, as it makes you think that the whole world's been affected by the series of catastrophes that are collectively called The Crash. The flashback sequences that offer glimpses of the breakdowns that crushed the planet come across as truly haunting. Donaldson's line work is sleek and sexy, with a real facility for drawing clothes, hair and facial expressions.

The humans drawn here feel passionate and expressive and Donaldson does great work with dialogue-heavy layouts. Stewart's muted palette doesn't feel make the fictional world feel dead, rather, the planet feels battered into submission. More poignantly, the Earth in The Massive doesn't feel like it's going to wake. These characters are stuck here and we'll have to watch.

In previous works like DMZ, Channel Zero and Northlanders, Brian Wood has previously demonstrated a unique ability to comment on societal changes through the eyes of his cast. Whether it's a latter-day civil war or a Viking battlefield, he chronicles the social order's cracks just after they've happened and excels at showing how human behavior reels in the aftermath.

It's pretty inspired to take an analogue to controversial ecological groups like Earth First! and Greenpeace, throw them into a situation that bears out the logic driving their activism and show the existential diminishment that follows. If you wind up being right about what the systemic implosion of the earth's biodynamic systems would do to the planet, then it would really suck to be stuck in the shattered remains of what you once knew.

I can already tell that The Massive's going to offer a perceptive look at how the loneliness, paranoia and philosophical tensions of the book's premise play out amongst the comic's cast.

How do pacifists defend against predators? Do you bother sticking to ideals when no one's watching? How long can hope hold out when everything else has run dry? Already, these questions coalesce into the subtext of the first issue of The Massive and from this strong debut, it looks like the answers are going to be entertaining and thought-provoking. Pick it up tomorrow on June 13th and prepare to be cast adrift.

After a long time fighting secret development wars, Gazillion Entertainment is finally letting the world look at the massive multiplayer online game featuring dozens, maybe even hundreds of Marvel Comics characters.

This quick teaser packs in a few Avengers, a couple of mutants and two of Marvel's biggest bad guys. Marvel Heroes has a storyline that will touch on epic arcs from the fictional universe, written by superstar scribe Brian Michael Bendis. The free-to-play PC game should be out some time soon.

Are we still pretending that comics and video games don't have anything to do with each other? Not anymore, we're not. Welcome to Panel Discussion, where the focus will be on comic books and sequential art, whether they connect directly to video games or not. Confused? Read this.

In two week's time, the E3 press conferences will be over. You'll have seen the biggest newest from Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft. You'll know all about the Wii U, the next big things for Xbox 360 and the future of PlayStation.

But how will you have seen this news?

If you are near a TV, you will hopefully have enjoyed the splendid 17 hours of marathon coverage planned by our friends at Spike TV. They're airing all of the E3 press conferences. They are, in fact, the only TV network airing the Nintendo one on Tuesday, June 5 (noon ET, 9am PT). They will do the other four live on Monday, June 4.

But what if you're not near a TV? What then? Or what if one screen is not enough for you? Have no fear. We'll be livestreaming Spike's 17-hour marathon right here on Kotaku on June 4 and 5, including all five conferences and lots of behind-the-scenes analysis featuring Spike's master of all things gaming Geoff Keighley and a smattering of your favorite Kotaku editors.

Things kick off on Monday, June 4, with Microsoft's showcase, followed by EA, Ubisoft and Sony. Nintendo rounds it out Tuesday morning.

Closer to the show, we'll post a reminder with a full rundown if times for all the big events.

Spike Presents Live Coverage of EA's "The Download: EA 2012 Preview" As Part of "E3 All Access Live" Special [Spike.com]

The first time I saw the word PulzAR on a list of upcoming PlayStation-brand video games, I laughed.

Or did I scoff?

One of the two.

PulzAR?? Really?

Having played Halo, I should know that you can't judge a game by its name. I didn't have to. PulzAR, I would soon learn is an augmented reality game for the Vita. OK. Kind of cool. AR games mostly seem like parlor tricks. I like them but I don't see myself playing them much.

PulzAR, however, is an AR game I'd play.

It's very simple. You use the Vita as a viewfinder of sorts, pointing it at a table. You place one of the augmented reality cards that ships with the Vita in the middle of the table. It triggers the rendering, on your Vita screen, of a missile silo. Since this is AR, it looks like the silo is on your table (as long as you're looking at the table through the Vita). It then generated a puzzle around the silo. The puzzle consists of a single lazer and a target. The target will be a certain color and will be angled in a specific direction. You can then place a handful of other AR cards on the table to make the laser strike the target.

Each card is associated with a mirror or a filter that can change the color of the laser. You're given a finite quantity of mirrors and lasters at the start of a puzzle and it's up to you to figure out card placement that works.

The light-bouncing puzzles in PulzAR aren't that different from those we've seen in Zelda and other adventure series, but there is something gained in being able to physically place and orient the cards (read: mirrors) in the real world.

The best thing about PulzAR isn't the gameplay. It's the game's own cheap trick. You play through each puzzle on a timer, racing to place your cards/mirrors before it's too late. Too late = the meteor overhead crashes onto the playing field and blows everything up. At any time, while you're playing, you can look up at the ceiling or sky above you in real life and—guess what?—there's a huge meteor hanging up there, slowly bearing down on you! It's a very cool effect, reminiscent of the menace of the falling moon in The Legend of Zelda: Majoras's Mask.

Hopefully if you play PulzAR that meteor will never crash on you. You will have connected the laser to its target and blasted it with a missile.

PulzAR will be out for the PlayStation Vita on June 12.

"It's just good for dancing games." That's been the unofficial but commonly held belief about the Kinect for a good while now— Dance Central and Just Dance have long been the most impressive games to play with Microsoft's motion-detector.

But what about a fighting game? Specifically, a kung fu fighting game? Several fitness games have involved fighting components, but Kinesthetic Games' newly announced Kung Fu Superstar looks to add a lot more story and action to the mix. From the game's press release, "Players will relive the epic journey of Danny Cheng, a young aspiring martial artist, as he rises through the ranks of international fame and stardom. Aided by his trusted Sifu, Danny will discover the secrets of Kung Fu and become the most popular martial arts stuntman Hollywood has ever known."

Kinesthetic Games is headed up by former Lionhead developer Kostas Zarifis, who is joined by a small team of fwllow game developers from other studios— Kung Fu Superstar started out as a project for one of Lionhead's "creative days," but eventually grew into something more.

Players will use real kung fu moves to fight against digital enemies, and will use their whole body to do so—given that the Kinect can feel a bit slow to respond, the game will obviously sink or swim based on its responsiveness. But this trailer, at least, is good fun, and certainly leads me to think that the game will really teach players a few honest-to-goodness kung fu moves.

Okay, so now computers can teach us kung fu. Next stop: The Matrix.

THQ continues to milk the living hell out of its best thing going with today's release of the Penthouse Pack for Saint's Row the Third, bolstering the ranks of players' gangs with a quartet of models from America's minor league nudie mag.

Minor league might be a little harsh, really. I'd say that Penthouse has a lock on fourth place in the "men's magazine" category, behind Playboy, Hustler and Maxim (which isn't technically in the same category). It features women who aren't as airbrush-friendly as the ones in Hugh Hefner's mag yet possess enough self-esteem to say no to Larry Flynt's publication.

For 240 Microsoft points or $3, Nikki Benz, Justine Joli, Ryan Keely, and Heather Vandeven will join your squad, bringing their various talents to bear in the war against the Syndicate.

They don't seem to bring any special bonuses, statistics or weapons with them, so I am not quite sure what the selling point here is supposed to be. If anyone needs me I'll be taking a nap in Oblivious Land.

It's been a roller-coaster ride for the sprawling Star Wars-based MMO from EA Bioware. The Old Republic's solid debut couldn't help the game from losing a sizable chunk of players. Now BioWare Austin is losing some of the developers that helped build the game, too, according to a statement issued today by BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka.

The future continues to look grim for Rhode Island game developer 38 Studios. After missing a May 1 loan payment and failing to make payroll last week, the beleaguered studio has had to lay off some employees.

Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee confirmed to local network WPRI yesterday that 38 Studios would be letting an as-yet unknown number of employees go, in an attempt to manage their financial resources. The state agreed in 2010 to lend the studio up to $75 million under the promise of creating an eventual 450 jobs to the area. Having to lay off staff clearly defeats that purpose.

Though the governor was initially against the loan to 38 Studios, he has stated repeatedly that it is in the best interest of the state to keep the studio solvent if possible—but without continuing to pour money into the business. Chafee stressed that the developer needs to find private capital as soon as possible, both for its own sake and for the taxpayers of Rhode Island.

Requests for comment from 38 Studios have, as yet, not been answered.

Gov. Chafee Confirms 38 Studios Layoffs [WPRI]