Kid or not, these super heroes (and some villains) are 100% committed to their personas.

Being 3 feet tall won't stop Thor from raising to the skies to invoke the strength of lightning. Magneto will go inside when his mother calls him for dinner, but not until he rips the swings off their chains. Even Wolverine's tree-branch claws don't get in the way of his feisty battles and brute attitude.

Don't let their cuteness mislead you. They've got just as much passion as if they were fully grown, adult super heroes. Click through the gallery for a few other selects, and be sure to expand to get the full effect.

AndyFairhurst [deviantART via Geekologie]

Bane Kid
Bat Kid
Doc Ock Kid
Magneto Kid
Thor Kid
Wolverine Kid

Tomorrow, you will be able to walk into a comics shop (yes, they still exist, despite me downloading most of comics to an iPad), and you will be able to buy three graphic novels. One is by Grant Morrison. One is by Eddie Campbell. One is by Alan Moore.

Morrison and Moore are merely two of the most acclaimed comics writers of all time. Campbell is brilliant too. He was Moore's artist on From Hell but is also the extraordinary writer-artist of the semi-autobiographical series Alec. I love Moore and Morrison, but Campbell is the one whose work I am most excited about. I will go to a shop to buy these.

By the way, I call these all graphic novels because they are thicker than monthly comics, all square-bound I believe. That's novelly enough for me.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #3: 2009
Alan Moore! This is the final chapter of Moore's tour of his mostly-20th Century versions of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, his super-hero team comprised of various heroes and villains from popular fiction. This one is set in 2009 and in some way features a version of Harry Potter as the Anti-Christ. Does that mean we can call this After Harry Potter? Only if we're wise-asses. Kevin O'Neill draws this one.

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Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens
Grant Morrison! For some reason, Grant Morrison has written a graphic-novel/movie-treatment about the great struggle between aliens and dinosaurs. I don't know why, but considering that Grant Morrison has written more comics that I'm crazy about than anyone else (New X-Men, The Invisibles, The Filth, All-Star Superman, Seaguy, Seven Soldiers, all his Batman stuff, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, and more), sure I'll buy this thing. Warning: this might be the stupidest thing Grant Morrison has ever written. I don't know. But it's Grant Morrison, so...

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Eddie Campbell! This guy may not be on your radar. He should be. He can out-write the other two guys here and he certainly can out-draw them. Campbell is a treasure, a less prolific creator than Moore or Morrison, but one of great wit. His new book is about money. Official summary time: "Money makes the world go round, as they say... but how, exactly? Award-winning graphic novelist Eddie Campbell (From Hell, Alec) presents a fascinating journey into the wilderness of personal finance. With his trademark blend of research, anecdote, autobiography, and fantasy, Campbell explores how money underwrites human relationships, flowing all around us like the air we breathe - or the water we drown in. The result is a whimsical graphic essay, deeply grounded in Eddie's personal experiences with 'the lovely horrible stuff,' ranging from the imaginary wealth of Ponzi schemes and television pilots to the all-too-tangible stone currency of the Micronesian island of Yap."

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Good lord, the second-to-last issue of Jason Aaron's splendid, squalid Scalped is also coming out, and that's the one comic DC doesn't issue on the iPad. I am definitely going to the shop this week.

Panel Discussion czar Evan Narcisse takes this week off from comics recommendations and we get a line-up like this? I may never let him go on duty again.

At the close of the Zynga Unleashed press event in San Francisco, Zynga boss Mark Pincus left us with a trailer for FarmVille 2, with no release date, only a "coming soon" date.

(Pic via Polygon. More at the link.)

Zynga has had a lot of success creating various types of what they refer to as "The Ville Genre." CastleVille, CityVille, FrontierVille, and the monster that started it all, FarmVille.

Well, that's only partially true. FarmVille may have been the first Ville game to become widely popular, but the first was actually YoVille, a Sims-like game that let players sync their Facebook account to an avatar like they would a Sims sim.

With their new game The Ville, Zynga is returning to the YoVille idea, cribbing heavily from EA's hugely popular The Sims Social while wrapping things up in its usual cheery, compulsive and vaguely psychotic vibe.

The setup of The Ville is essentially identical to The Sims Social. You'll make a character, to whom you can assign any of a number of physical traits. You can also customize his or her clothing, and then immediately begin building a "dream home" in which to spend time. This character is tied to your Facebook account, and so is also connected to any of your Facebook friends who play The Ville.

Home-construction is where things take on that familiar "Zynga Vibe"—you'll be able to lay out your house however you want. You'll want to make it look nice for yourself, but you'll especially want to make it look nice so that your friends will be impressed.

The in-game economy works the same as in other Zynga games—activities pay you in happiness but cost you energy, and getting energy takes time or real-world money. If you want to make your house more beautiful than your neighbor's, you'll most likely have to pony up some cash.

Where The Ville most resembles The Sims Social is in the interpersonal relationships you can build up with your Facebook friends. You can invite your neighbors over to your house at any time, and by doing activities with them, you'll build up your relationship. Then, if things are going very well, you can enter into a romantic relationship.

In the demo I saw, a producer took her character over to a potential flame's house and seduced him. Well… she had the points required to seduce him, and he'd indicated that he was into it. They rolled around a bit on his bed (obfuscated by a bunch of hearts, which was cute). After that, she moved on to another house where she worked on developing another friend.

Activities with your friends' avatars don't require them to be present, but when they get back, they'll see what they've been up to and can replay any interactions they've had with someone. So, if you go over and sleep with your friend, he or she will be able to replay the moment for posterity.

Unlike The Sims Social, in The Ville you can only improve your friendships with people—there are no options for enmity or rivialry, though Zynga's Mark Skaggs left the door open for that sort of thing in the future. There are plenty of other small features, and more information can be found at the game's Facebook fan page.

The Ville will launch on Facebook tomorrow, Wednesday the 27th.

Star Wars: The Old Republic update 1.3 is live, patching in a group finder tool and ranked player-versus-player combat, along with adaptive gear and Legacy character perks. Let's get those subscribers back, BioWare! [BioWare]

I'm a big fan of the fantastic sound design of Diablo III. I'm also a big fan of Koji Kondo's original theme for Super Mario Bros.

So as you can imagine, I got a kick out of this remix by YouTuber Tyler73123, who puts the sounds of Diablo III behind the music from Mario. Okay so, he really just syncs up the sound effects to the rhythm of Mario, but it's still pretty funny.

My, what a nice sense of musicality you have, Diablo III! You must knock 'em dead at parties.

Today's PlayStation Store update brings a free YouTube app to the Vita, with a style that puts other portable video playing devices to shame.

Streaming videos are sure to look amazing on the Vita's screen, and it definitely helps that YouTube and Sony came up with an application to view them looks to be ten times more functional than the sort of thing you get on the iPhone.

Videos will be viewable in two modes – full screen and small screen. In Full Screen mode, a control panel will be displayed on the screen, which will allow you to easily expand or minimize videos. Additionally, an HD button will appear when playing high definition (up to 720p) videos. Simply tap on the HD button to switch from HD to SD.

Isn't that pretty? If I actually carried my Vita anywhere this sure would come in handy.

Download YouTube for PS Vita Today [PlayStation Blog]

Oftentimes, when classic games are re-released, there can be fan discontent about the quality of the porting job. If too many things are changed, fans are upset. This can be particularly dicy with voice-acting, given that many older games used outdated technology to record and compress audio, and many of the voice actors that worked on a given game may no longer be working or available.

Tekken Game Director Katsuhiro Harada has had enough of complaining Tekken fans, issuing the following fairly epic rant yesterday via TwitLonger:

I have something I want to say to the people who spam me with requests to "switch back(or Bring back) to the voice actors used previously".
I believe that, before whining and complaining about everything, you need practice at taking a step back and analyzing things objectively. And also at being an adult.

First, the voice you were listening to was 16 years ago, during the PlayStation period. The current generation of consoles are totally different in how they play back sound; both software-wise, and the internal circuitry
The playback program is different, as well as the sound effects added; reverb and 5.1 are examples of this. The comrpression rate, as well as the sound rate, is different today. Are you playing games on the same TV you used 16 years ago? What about your speakers? Headphones? They are all the same as 16 years ago? I wonder if it will sound like the same voice as 16 years ago, even with that data..

Also, you are assuming the voice actors themselves can reproduce the voice the recorded 16 years ago? Many voice actors decline work because their voice has changed since the original role, some have even retired. Sometimes they won't accept, even if we ask.
The recording studio and the equipment they use is also different. With all of this in mind, you still thing it is possible to recreate these voices?

Some might say "just pay them to reuse the voice data".
But, often the voice actors decline this, or their agency declines.

For example, Brian's laugh is the actual data from Tekken 3. As fans have requested, we've kept using the original, adapting the data recorded 16 years ago to be used on the PS2, and then PS3.
Even so, some people said it is a different voice in Tekken 6 than the original.
It can't be helped they might think that. As explained above, even though the master data is the same, all of the equipment used in adapting it has completely changed. That said, it isn't a good idea to try to reccreate the older recording environment because then the data sounds heavily compressed, with noise. More than that, it would sound out of place next to the voice data of the newer characters.
WHAT? You say some of the voices sound like they haven't changed at all?
I guess you didn't notice that the development team has re-recorded them, but made efforts for it to sound as close as possible to the original. And you probably didn't even notice.

Do you know that all of the voice work for a character is not always done by just one voice actor? Using Brian as an example, the laugh you guys love so much uses the original data from Tekken 3, but the short kiai voice uses a different voice actor, and the "come on!" voice also uses a different voice actor. A lot of other characters also use different voice actors for the spoken lines and for the shouts.

I did the voice work for Marshal and Forest for 15 years.
However, I can no longer produce that voice after Tekken 5, so we had a different voice actor for Tekken 6.

The Tekken series has continued for 17 years. The development environment, as well as the environment in which you all play games, has changed.
There are so many characters, and we can't keep using he same voice actors every time, for a variety of reasons.
I have even complied to the requests of you all spamming me to "bring back characters" from previous installments. You often say, "let's show the dev team how sincere we are by buying 2 copies if they bring back character X", but did you really go through with it? Expecting you to at least pre-order the game, I was met with more spam, after you apparently didn't notice that Jun and Michelle actually return.

I still have some characters left to be revealed that comply with some of your requests, even "bringing back" several others. Even so, none of them are paid DLC. I will continue to sincerely comply with fan requests.
However, I can't continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat "bring back, bring back, bring back..."
After this lengthy explanation, I will be quite surprised if there are still people who still don't get it.

Thanks for understanding or not understanding. Whatever.

Dang.

His finger-point introduction says "yes," but his fidgety shake of the crowbar says "yes, I will kill you now."

Henry The Worst [Tumblr]

The Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut is the result of one of the largest fan outcries in the history of gaming, delivering a series of new endings to appease fans seeking more closure than the game initially provided.

Have the fans been satisfied? Yes. Also, no.

The comments below are taken directly from the dedicated Mass Effect fans that populate BioWare's official forums, a place I don't recommend wandering into today unless you want to spend the day reading the same arguments over and over again.

Browsing this selection of ten positives, ten negatives and one confusing should give you a similar experience. I left the spelling intact, because it's more fun that way.

Oh, and here there be spoilers. Continue at your own risk.

Loved

• "I vastly enjoyed the new ending, to be honest. I felt extremely hollow after witnessing the original, but this left me feeling extremely content. Sure, I'm on of those who wanted little blue babies with Liara, but at least now I know she got closure. And I know that civilization will last to honour my sacrifice to the galaxy :)" — Deavent
• THIS WAS AMAZING! MY DESTROY WAS WOW....THANK YOU GUYS" - FemaleMageFan
• "Thank you, Bioware. I was personally very pleased with the changes to the Destroy ending. That is the ending I chose and it was made so much better. I feel like it was truly the ending to MY Shepard." – LeeluMultipass
• "I have only done the synthesis ending so far and omg bioware, wrench my heart out and make me happy/sad at the same time some more why don't you. I love you EDI! How am I ever supposed to destroy/control now!" – Fleshdress
• "I hated the original endings.....I can now say that I actually want to play through my favorite series again" – McFly616
• "i was anti-ending...anti-retake.. THIS IS WHAT I WANTED!!! THIS....made me so freaking happy" -Corporal Doody
• "I never disliked the original ending, but felt more fulfilling. Thanks for the hardwork! Let's just hope that more people feel this way now." – Michael177
• "I have to admit from what I seen the ending is now alot better, I still have some problems with it but I'm satisfied now." – Dinosteve
• "Just finished and I actually liked the old ending now (And I hated it it before). The new one just gives more of what many fans were saying the disliked about the ending. At least with the old one there was room for Lots of Speculation. Oh well, Halo 4 here I come!" –MagicalFish
• "For something that was not designed to change an original ending that is rightly infamous for reasons we all know and only add to it, it was quite good. I really enjoyed the extra scenes, they provided a lot more closure and patched up a lot of the plot holes from the original ending, whilst still maintaining legroom for speculation." – chaos_Shadow15

Hated

• "Bioware is NOT a 5 year old child making a crayon drawing. Bioware is a multi million dollar company capable of having made Mass Effect 3.5. Instead, they did the absolute bear minimum to get us to shut up. It worked." — Confused-Shepard
• "im extremely dissapointed the ec sucks balls" - kingalexdarkoo
• "Now I can finally trade in my ME3 copy. Thank you for confirming my fears Bioware" – wicked_being
• "Hated it then, hate it now. C'est la vie." – steeltrainn
• "First LOST, then ME3 and IT, shame on me I guess. The thing I do not like is, that they are still liars. They said that the ending will not be like LOST ending and yet, here we are." – Pangaron
• "I find it depressingly sad that BioWare screwed up Mass Effect so badly, twice. We asked for closure and endings that made sense, had a colorful array of endings (and NOT in the literal sense) and what we got instead was a pile of implied insults, more plot holes, useless scenes and a slideshow." — Trifecta739
• "In three months I expected better from bioware but no, didn't improve anything." — Thaa_solon
• "I'm NOT satisfied, so I have all rights to further complain and I can't see a real effort in this loveless piece of crap." – Prince_Valiant
• "Whilst there were improvements, they really didn't do a good job. Far from it. This is as close as we'll get to something decent. The outcomes still weren't fleshed out; it all felt lifeless." – ZombifiedJake
• "I honestly don't understand why they even bothered. This can't possibly be enough for anyone who hated the original ending." – Lyme Eilserv

And this guy

• "Instead of beaking the ME universe the ending is now completely pointless and has near zero effect on the future and you know whot? I call this 100% positive result" – Sheepie Crusher

I love you, Sheepie Crusher.

These results are pretty much as expected. The only way BioWare could have possibly pleased everyone was by polling each individual player and crafting a version of the ending specifically for them.

Judging by the reactions I've read so far, the Extended Cut has divided the fan base right down the middle, with a few colorful characters riding the line. I'd say that's the best BioWare could have hoped for.