Apparently reacting to overwhelming (and possibly overblown) pressure from fans who hated the current ending for Mass Effect 3- Bioware is releasing a free DLC this summer that will add additional closure, goodies, swag, and no doubt solve world hunger. Who knew that nerd-rage could actually work as a political tool for change?. *Golfclap.

This is the official “obligatory” Nicki Minaj post. Not because the Complex Mag cover is a watershed moment or anything, (does anybody still wear Ecko?) but just cause I happen to appreciate this woman as a poet and master of ridiculous “fuck faces”. Witness the ruthless Mortal Kombat fatality she delivered on Lil Kim with just one subliminal on that Dirty Money remix. Pay homage to the revolving color spectrum of wigs that she employs in her domination of lesser rap bitches. (Trina who?) Marvel at the ambiguous English accent, the tourettes worthy ad-libs and massive thighs/badonkadonk, then realize that when you diss Barbie you diss YASELF.

The people have spoken. Minaj is ubiquitous-and according to this article only semi-gay friendly, so that means she’s still viable as a black artist (recent OUT magazine cover notwithstanding). Who can deny that Nicki Minaj is entertaining? I know for a fact that she can out-rap any dude on her label (points at Drake) and it’s only a matter of time before she crosses over into the mainstream with films, action figures, and breakfast cereal. Who cares that I won’t ever buy a Young Money album? I don’t buy anybody’s shit whatchu think they made the internet for? HUNNIT THOUSAND

Late pass on this one, but it looks like Joe Mad is back on his grizzly with this image of Vampirella kicking a toothy squid in the mouth. Vampirella #1 is scheduled for a November release via Dynamite Entertainment and features a handful of other fan favorites such as J. Scott Campbell, and Alex Ross on the debut cover. I can’t say I blame duke for knocking out these random commissions and keeping it pushin on the gaming tip, (pays more) but I would like to see a resolution to Battle Chasers. Just sayin.

X-Force headcase Laura Kinney aka X-23 has been announced as a playable character in the new Marvel vs Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds for XBox 360 and Ps3. With the appearance of the Super Skrull in earlier trailers, this game looks like a napalm smash so far for Marvel geeks- but I’m still foggy on what Capcom fans will be getting out of it. From what I can gather off the Wiki page, Viewtiful Joe (whoever that is) is the only unexpected addition to the Capcom roster. What, no Akuma? No Albert Wesker? No Nemesis? Yeah, I’m a Resident Evil geek you already knew that tho. Keep the hits coming!

Wakandan ruler T’Challa aka The Black Panther will be the replacement for Daredevil in the upcoming Marvel series Black Panther: The Man Without Fear written by award winning novelist David Liss, and penciled by Francesco Francavilla. Internets had a field day speculating who would pick up the banner vacated by Matt Murdock, and the answer was revealed on G4′s Attack Of The Show (Olivia Munn hollatchaboi) yesterday afternoon. Perhaps this won’t be the most fan friendly choice, but it does make sense in a purely aesthetic/functional manner. We’ll see.

Enter the Emo Dante. Resident Evil was always my favorite Capcom franchise outside of Street Fighter, so I don’t have any emotional (swidt?) attachment to Devil May Cry, although the anime is pretty badass. The sleeper hold/stoge smash should come in real handy next time somebody bugs me for an “extra” cigarette.

I’m gonna echo some of the comments I’ve seen elsewhere and say this looks to be a take on choppy American animation Ala Cartoon Network stylee, but in a more satirical vein ( if that’s possible ). The Afro-ed character looming over the action gets the gas face for being only slightly less annoying than Mr. Popo of Dragonball Z fame, but this is Japan we’re talking about so- baby steps I guess.

The Big Head Scientist strikes again! This is the first in a series of HTML T-Shirt designs I’ll be smashin kids in the head with goin into the holiday season. Yea it’s Hunnit Thousand now cop suttin and stop browsin!

All technology will become outmoded at some point. When The Matrix came out at the turn of the century it was the height of digital rendering. The Bullet Time effect was ubiquitous and John Gaeta and his team were the darlings of the industry and tech media. However, he was hard pressed to repeat his earlier success in the sequels to The Matrix for a variety of reasons.

Chief among these was the very real possibility that the original concept for that movie was juxed (jacked) wholesale from Sophia Stewart, whose lawsuit against the Wachowski Bros was either stuck in litigation limbo, settled out of court on the DL, or simply dismissed outright last time I checked. Regardless what you believe, It’s hard to repeat creative success when the original idea is yours, but when you swagger jack someone else, the odds of replicating that spark decrease exponentially with each subsequent viewing of your work as the fans forget about you, and move on to the next ‘expeditiously’ as Joe Clark might say.

The following most obvious case for dwindling interest in a given property or product is overexposure. The movie Blade Runner gives a great example. When Rutger Hauer’s demented Roy Batty character demanded more “life” from Tyrell he was ethered with the simple yet poignant response that The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

Who can forget the stranglehold that Master P and No Limit records had on the rap game in the late 90′s? Tupac had just died and Percy Miller and his brothers provided the requisite thuggin for the starving masses to the tune of platinum record sales. Nevertheless they were quickly upstaged by Cash Money records and Lil Weezy, who took their formula and essentially dumbed it down (That is-if you can fathom the intellectual distance between grunting UUUNGH and made up words like WOBBITY WOBBITY WOBBY) for a new audience. The point is that artists like DMX who used to put out two or three commercial albums a year and flooded the short run/ straight to video blockbuster category had a relatively short shelf life compared to “artists” like Diddy who seem to show up every three to four years with something new, and manage to stay ubiquitous by diversifying and never getting stuck on one specific style or promotion for any length of time. The need for this re-invention is only magnified in the social media age where sharing everything is the norm, and online inactivity is equated with death.

What have we learned so far? Number one, we need to stay abreast of the latest trends in technology and possibly innovate when faced with the opportunity. Two, we need to be original, but when ‘borrowing’ or ‘biting’ someone else we should try to improve on their blueprint by providing a fresh angle via the current zeitgeist or public sentiment in order to stay relevant in a rapidly changing digital marketplace. Finally, we need to understand that as technology improves, the masses get dumber. This is a natural outgrowth of the information age. Ergo- most overworked and underpaid consumers; when faced with a choice between just add water entertainment and something more substantive will more often than not choose the former. That is-unless the so called ‘deeper’ content is fleshed out thoroughly, fully realized, and vetted for cliches (ugh).

The latest Chris Nolan film Inception seems to reflect this idea perfectly as it is creator owned content possibly cribbed from other sources that successfully presents a fairly common subject matter like dream imagery (remember The Matrix?) in a visually compelling format utilizing the latest digital bells and whistles to maximum effect. Not quite re-inventing the wheel but possibly ‘throwin some D’s on that bitch’. Nolan himself is an interesting case as his two earlier films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are based on a wholly ubiquitous property that has been done a million times over by an equal number of creators. What makes Batman so untouchable but the Matrix sequels so disposable? Why should audiences care what happens to an ageless (possibly immortal) character like Bruce Wayne over six decades but give Neo the gasface after only two?

The answer to that would probably fill up a War and Peace sized novel, but the basic rule holds true; work from a simple blue print (crime and punishment, sadomasochism, vengeance) and frame it in whatever contemporary jive the public is fixated on and BAMN, instant hit. This is why Hollywood is so obsessed with remakes and why every so called new artist is basically a rehash of a more talented older one.

The science behind it may not be exact, but it amounts to touching a nerve with a potential viewer on a visceral level while delivering the raw functionality and technological marvel that jaded consumers demand. Nolan understands this- which is why his version of Batman worked over Joel Schumacher’s if only for the fact that contemporary audiences value grit over glamor- psychological menace over campiness, and slicker- authentic looking technology over the clumsier, more stylized versions favored by earlier creators. In other words, improving on a previous meme and wrapping it in a different color iPhone case. The resulting product is still little more than a glorified PDA but your customer base will devour it because it feels new.

Staying relevant then becomes less about creating new concepts and more about executing proven ones in a fresher, more emotionally satisfying context. The idea being there’s nothing new under the sun, but if you light it from a different angle the audience will come. As usual, all comments and feedback are welcome, and be sure to stay posted for the web-comic series How To Make Loot. ONE HUNNIT.