Check out these debonaire fellows.

By: Unknown on 15:56

Remember these guys?  Back in the 80's Marvel Comics decided that Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America needed a makeover.  In the world of comics there's an old editorial maxim that "every comic is somebody's first".  Any GameBlog readers start reading comics with one of these versions of the heroes?  Were you confused or annoyed when the dudes above were reverted back to their previous design?  I'm curious.

Some people are taking the recent elevation of Mike Mearls to head of D&D Research & Development and this EN World "acceptance speech" of his as a signal of 5E getting under way.  I'm not sure that's really the case and I see no point in arguing the possibility one way or another.  5E will come when it comes, no matter what the entrails say prior to the event.  I just want to take a moment to respond to the hope, already expressed by a few, that 5E will step back from the more recent editions and go back the The Way Things Used To Be.  I'm not one of those people.  I'm not particularly keen on the idea of a self-consciously Old School new edition of D&D.  My favorite edition has already had its turn in the sun.  Maybe each new generation of D&D players deserve a version of the game that speaks to them.  WotC shouldn't turn its back on the current player base to satisfy the needs of the old fart brigade, even if we really do outnumber the 4e kids 16 to 1.

Really, all I want out of Wizards at this point is for them to get their heads out of their asses sufficiently to resume PDF sales and/or offer their back catalog as print-on-demand titles and/or produce a 'classic' retro boxed set. Marvel and DC have realized there's money to be made in old material, as the pile of Marvel Essentials on the shelf behind me attests.  Are RPG fans really that much stupider than comic fans, that we wouldn't be able to navigate between the D&D equivalent of Amazing Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man?  I don't think so.  We all pretty much made it out of the 'AD&D vs. Basic/Expert' era intact. +10 nerd points for the first guy to mention that the Hulk was grey in his first few appearances and the green version is actually the update.