Author: News Polite

Marvel’s Heroes Are Being Dragged Into Fortnite’s Greatest Battle Yet

A big part of the appeal of Fortnite is that it gives life to all our childhood fantasies about heroes from different universes teaming up to battle evil. The game now includes skins based on Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Tron, Naruto, Street Fighter and countless other iconic franchises. But sometimes those crossovers are more than merely superficial, and that’s where Fortnite x Marvel: Zero War comes in.

A followup of sorts to 2021’s Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point, Zero War explores a major escalation in the endless conflict raging on Fortnite’s Island. In this story, a fragment of the Zero Point lands in the Marvel Universe, forcing the heroes of Fortnite to join forces with the Avengers to prevent a disaster that could affect all worlds. It’s a conflict that fans will see play out in both the game itself and the pages of the comic.

The comic series reunites the Zero Point writing team – Epic Games’ Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard and prolific Marvel writer Christos Gage – with Sergio Davila (Wonder Woman) handling the art. Check out an exclusive preview of the first issue in the slideshow gallery below, and then read on to learn more about this major crossover from Gage himself.

Fortnite x Marvel: Zero War #1 Preview Gallery

From the DC Universe to the Marvel Universe

Zero War is probably the closest thing comic book fans will see to a true Marvel/DC crossover for the foreseeable future (unless you count the recent reprint of JLA/Avengers). While there won’t be any DC characters appearing in this story, Fortnite’s Island has now officially played host to heroes from both universes. Zero War’s conflict builds on the foundation of Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point and the previous, Thor-centric Fortnite x Marvel crossover, so it’s just as well Mustard and Gage are collaborating again.

“It’s still a delight,” Gage said regarding that collaboration. “If anything it’s more instinctive now, as Donald and I are really familiar with each other’s creative processes, but that was true midway through Batman/Fortnite…we clicked really quickly. So from the standpoint of collaborating with Donald, it felt like a direct continuation. We both love comics, we both love the Fortnite lore, and we both want to deliver something awesome for fans of both the comics and the game. Hopefully that showed last time, and will show again this time.”

Art by Leinil Yu. (Image Credit: Marvel)

The biggest change between Zero Point and Zero War is that Gage and Mustard are working with Davila, whose recent Marvel work includes Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade. While Davila’s style is similar in some ways to what we saw on Zero Point, Gage said he also brings some particular skills to the table in this story.

“The idea is to find the best artist for the story we hope to tell, and when [editor Alanna Smith] recommended Sergio, we saw what he’d been doing with his inventive layouts and crazy action scenes and knew he was perfect,” Gage said. “Given that we’re depicting what is basically the culmination of the war between the Seven and the Imagined Order, the poor guy was going to have to draw armies, but he was also going to have to make some smaller, more character-focused scenes work too. And he’s done it brilliantly, as the images released thus far show beyond a shadow of a doubt. He’s the hardest working one on the team, for sure!”

We both love comics, we both love the Fortnite lore, and we both want to deliver something awesome for fans of both the comics and the game.

“

As mentioned above, this isn’t the first Marvel/Fortnite crossover comic, but it’s certainly much larger in scope than 2020’s Fortnite x Marvel: Nexus War – Thor #1. Where that comic was basically a prologue story setting up an in-game story event, Zero War is a five-issue series telling a complete story unto itself. However, Gage teases there will be some major connective tissue between the comic and the game, particularly as the Zero War event reaches its climax later in 2022.

“There’ll be a few things you see in both the game and the comic – mostly in our final issue,” Gage said. “But for the most part, what happens in the game and what happens in the comic are different fronts in the same war. Some questions that players might have about the game are answered in the comic, and vice versa, though neither are required to follow the story in the other.”

The Heroes of Zero War

Another notable difference between the previous Thor tie-in and the Zero War miniseries is that the former springs out of a very specific moment in Donny Cates’ ongoing Thor series, whereas Zero War takes a slightly more evergreen approach to the Marvel Universe. The costumes and team rosters are reflective of the current state of the Marvel U., but the plot isn’t necessarily pinned down to a specific point in time.

“We talked about the fact that in the future, people will be reading the story as a collected edition,” Gage noted. “So the emphasis wasn’t about ‘This moment takes place on page X of comic book Y.’ Now, we are reflecting the current status quo of the Marvel Universe. The Avengers lineup is what it currently is in the Avengers title. But someone who picks up the collected edition two or three years from now won’t need to know exactly what issue of Avengers was out that month and what was happening in it.”

For Gage, one of the main challenges with Zero War was writing a comic that could be accessible to both Fortnite fans who don’t actively read Marvel’s comics and comic fans who haven’t been playing the game. It’s a tough balance to strike, given how steeped in Fortnite lore this new series is. In the end, Gage followed Smith’s editorial advice, using Wolverine and Spider-Man as focal points to deliver critical information to Fortnite newcomers in issue #1.

Art by Ron Lim. (Image Credit: Marvel)

“It was challenging, because you have to consider that this will be read both by Fortnite fans who aren’t immersed in Marvel lore and vice versa, but luckily everyone on the creative team was aware of that and eager to make it accessible. That’s why we were given 30 pages for issue #1. (Subsequent issues are the usual 20 pages…until our explosive 30-page finale!) Our editor, Alanna, had a brilliant suggestion after reading the first draft of the first issue’s script, which was to move Spidey finding Wolverine from the end of the issue to the beginning, and then have Spidey narrate the whole issue as a sort of flashback as he brings Wolvie up to speed. Which was utter genius. Because now, instead of exposition, you have Spider-Man’s distinctive voice telling this insane story about converging realities and giant robots and never-ending battles where people break for a dance every now and then.”

Gage added, “I’ve written my share of Spider-Man in the past 17 years…loads of comics, and a PS4/5 video game you may have heard about… so his voice leaps into my head pretty naturally. Alanna’s approach made it all fall into place. And that, folks, is just one aspect of what a good editor does.”

The comic will feature a sizable cast of Marvel heroes, but the story specifically centers around three – Wolverine, Spider-Man and Shuri. That cast of characters wasn’t mandated by either Epic or Marvel, but rather by which best suited the story and which characters the creative team had the most affinity for.

“Donald loves Wolverine, and specifically his ‘Patch’ identity from the early days of his first solo series,” said Gage. “Every time we’d talk over Zoom, I could see two pages of original art from that book framed on his wall behind him. So we decided to use that take on Wolverine. The idea is that when he wants a breather from all the stuff going on in Krakoa, Logan heads over to Madripoor for some cheap beer and a good brawl, and that’s where we find him. Donald also really wanted to use Spidey, who is in Fortnite now, and I love me some Spidey, so that was a big thumbs up. I think it was Alanna who suggested Shuri after the talk of Patch led to the idea of an almost Indiana Jones-style quest for an artifact – in this case, the Zero Shard, a crystallized piece of the Zero Point itself that broke off and was drawn back to the Marvel Universe when Galactus was driven out of Reality Zero in the previous Marvel/Fortnite crossover.”

Gage continued, “We were talking about cool Marvel locations, and of course Wakanda came up, and we realized Shuri was a natural. There was also discussion of what Fortnite characters would have good chemistry with the Marvel characters we were using. So we have a very familiar Fortnite character in Jones, who we will be learning some previously unrevealed things about, and a pretty recently introduced character in The Imagined. Conversely, there are some Marvel characters appearing in Fortnite right now, like Moon Knight, who aren’t in the comic at all. It was all about the story and what serves it.”

Fortnite x Marvel: Zero War #1 will hit comic shops and Marvel Unlimited on Wednesday, June 8.

Epic has added all sorts of interesting new characters to Fortnite in 2022. Nathan Drake from the Uncharted movie and games was recently added, alongside Marvel’s Moon Knight, Dwayne Johnson, Bruno Mars, and outfits from Cobra Kai. It even added virtual attendees of Coachella alongside music from the festival itself.

It all appears to feed into Epic Games’ metaverse, with the Coachella collaboration in particular feeding into the idea of bringing “the real world” into a shared online space, especially as the event was announced just days after Sony and LEGO’s parent company KIRKBI invested $2 billion into the publisher.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.



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Commitment to African Medicines Agency Needs More Than Words — Global Issues

To date, 19 countries have already ratified the treaty. However, this number remains far short of the 55 AU member states and excludes some of the region’s power houses such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Senegal. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS
  • Opinion by Johnpaul Omollo, Taonga Chilalika (nairobi/johannesburg)
  • Inter Press Service

NAIROBI/JOHANNESBURG, Apr 29 (IPS) – Across Africa, local manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies are responding to the urgent need for locally produced medical products and technologies despite the existing regulatory challenges. We can support manufacturing capacity by expediting the establishment and operationalisation of the African Medicines Agency (AMA).

In November 2021, after 15 countries signed and ratified the AMA treaty, the AMA became a specialised agency of the African Union (AU). To date, 19 countries — Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe — have ratified the treaty.

However, this number remains far short of the 55 AU member states and excludes some of the region’s power houses such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Senegal.

Over the next five years, Africa’s health care sector, especially local pharmaceutical production, will be a key economic driver for the region—predicted to be about two percent of the global pharmaceutical market in 2022.

Harmonising health product regulations will make Africa a more attractive market for the pharmaceutical sector, for both research and development, as well as introduction of innovations.

These harmonisation efforts will further improve trade in support of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), by deepening African integration and enabling the development of markets for health commodities and technologies? Of most importance, the agency will coordinate joint assessments and inspections for a select group of products, and coordinate capacity building.

The next two years will be critical in setting up the agency, including selecting a host country, appointing the director general, recruiting staff, and setting up offices for AMA. Countries that have not yet ratified will not have an input into these key decisions which will bolster the medicines regulatory environment in the region.

This has been a long journey. The agency is derived from the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) initiative launched in 2012, led by African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) to address challenges faced in medicines regulation in Africa.

These challenges include weak legislative frameworks, duplicative and slow medicine registration processes, and subsequent prolonged approval decisions, limited technical capacity, and weak supply chain control. As COVID-19 has shown, these challenges pose both a public health and economic risk to the continent.

To improve the fragmented regulatory system for medical product registration in Africa, the vision is to gradually move from a country-focused approach, with 55 countries acting independently to a collaborative regional one, with five Regional Economic Communities supporting one Agency.

AMA will review regional policies and identify new sources of funding to enhance national capacity to regulate medicines, as well as try to simplify the complex requirements from regional and global level standards and guidelines.

Member states also need to be cognizant of the extensive operationalization process required to set up the agency’s administrative and technical workstreams. For instance, as part of the administrative workstream, they need to select a host country, appoint a Director General, recruit staff, set up office space, and register the treaty with the UN Secretary General.

We need to move swiftly to ensure the entire continent is on board. By now, every AU member state should have approved and ratified the AMA by signing, ratifying, and depositing its instruments at the AU commission.

Member states need to commit resources to co-finance the operations of the agency as top priority, building on the already existing commitment of more than €100 millionby the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union.

With the vision of preparing Africa to facilitate the production of 60 percent of vaccines needed on the continent by 2040, the establishment of AMA is a clarion call to countries and regulators. We must urgently put in place the tools needed to realise the optimal operationalisation of the Agency by the end of 2022.

We applaud the 19 member states that have ratified the AMA. We urge these states to be champions by promoting the benefits of the agency all over the continent to encourage and motivate the rest to come on board and ratify the Africa Medicines Agency.

Johnpaul Omollo is a Senior Advocacy and Policy Officer at PATH in Kenya. Follow him on Twitter @JPmcOmollo

Taonga Chilalika is a Senior Advocacy and Policy Associate at PATH in South Africa. Follow her on Twitter @TaongaChilalika.

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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How the Jets and Giants Won the First Round of the NFL Draft

There’s a classic YouTube video titled “NY Jets Draft Blunders” that has amassed nearly two million views. It shows an ESPN-produced montage of Jets fans reacting in despair to the team’s draft selections in the ’80s and ’90s, like when the team famously chose quarterback Ken O’Brien over the future Hall of Famer Dan Marino in 1983. In some cases the cascade of jeers begins at the mere mention of the position being drafted — a first-round fullback? — even before the player’s name is revealed.

It’s a 1-minute 38-second snapshot of what Jets fandom has often been. Recent history hasn’t been much better for those who root for the Giants. Over the past five seasons, the teams share the league’s worst record, 22-59, and a major factor in that inglorious mark has been draft-day decisions that proved worthy of those famous boos.

Which is why what happened Thursday night was in itself newsworthy: The Jets and the Giants each had good plans for drafting in the first round that they executed well, creating excitement around their selections. In other words, the teams didn’t give their fan bases anything to boo about.

Both entered Round 1 of this year’s N.F.L. draft with two picks apiece in the top 10, a godsend for rosters with holes at some of the game’s most important positions. At pick No. 4, the Jets secured the player many evaluators viewed as the top cornerback this year, Ahmad Gardner of Cincinnati. With the No. 10 pick, one of the first-round selections they picked up through the 2020 trade of safety Jamal Adams to Seattle, the Jets added a target for their second-year quarterback Zach Wilson in Ohio State receiver Garrett Wilson.

By the time the Giants were on the clock for the first time, defensive players had been taken with each of the first four picks, one of the scenarios the team had gamed out in advance. They decided to use the fifth pick on Oregon edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, hoping he could help return the team to the days of having a fearsome pass rush. The Giants knew they could still get one of the top available offensive tackles at the seventh pick, and they did: Alabama’s Evan Neal, who will bookend the line with Andrew Thomas, a 2020 first-round pick.

But at the end of the night, the Jets had one more surprise: They traded back into the first round to nab Florida State edge rusher Jermaine Johnson II, a player many analysts had expected to be taken in the top half of the first round. General Manager Joe Douglas said at a news conference Thursday that the team began to discuss making a move for Johnson around pick No. 15, before striking a deal with the Tennessee Titans to take him at No. 26.

“You get three impact players at three premium positions — you dream of it happening,” said Coach Robert Saleh. “It was a really good day.”

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any draft pick will pan out, no matter how sound of a decision it seems at the time. The Philadelphia Eagles once conducted an analysis of the success rate for first-round picks, defining success as drafting a player who became a full-time starter for at least two of his first four seasons, and determined there was about a 50-50 chance of hitting on a player no matter where in the first round he was taken.

But with solid strategies, and a bit of luck, both the Jets and the Giants came out of Round 1 with players who give them a chance to deliver a much-improved brand of football from what their fans have had to endure the last few years.

“I’m hungry,” Thibodeaux said. “And I feel like New York is the pinnacle of a dog-eat-dog world.”

Both teams are at inflection points. For Douglas, entering his third draft with the Jets, the roster was still in a place where it needed to get better in a hurry, for the sake of Saleh, Zach Wilson and Douglas himself. And after an uncharacteristic revolving door in East Rutherford, N.J., the Giants’ new regime of General Manager Joe Schoen and Coach Brian Daboll is trying to get the franchise back on course.

There are still six more rounds of the draft, and months before any of these players will play in an N.F.L. game, but Thursday night felt like a win for two organizations that haven’t had many in recent years.

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Coinbase CEO responds to insider trading allegations with changes for token listings

After some crypto sleuths made allegations of insider trading by individuals potentially connected to Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong said the crypto exchange would change some of its token listing practices.

In a Thursday blog post, Armstrong did not confirm whether any Coinbase employees had received disciplinary action or been referred for criminal charges in response to allegedly receiving insider information used to profit off certain token listings. According to the CEO, Coinbase planned to change its listing process over the next few quarters “to try and prevent on-chain data giving signal to watchful traders,” to allow users to rate and review assets and invest more in forensic tools.

“There is always the possibility that someone inside Coinbase could, wittingly or unwittingly, leak information to outsiders engaging in illegal activity,” said the Coinbase CEO. “We have zero tolerance for this and monitor for it, conducting investigations where appropriate with outside law firms […] If these investigations find that any Coinbase employee somehow aided or abetted any nefarious activity, those employees are immediately terminated and referred to relevant authorities (potentially for criminal prosecution).”

According to Armstrong, employees are limited to trading crypto on Coinbase’s platforms by its company policies to monitor transactions and “stay ahead of possible abuse.” However, Cointelegraph reported in April that some online sleuths alleged certain investors had insider knowledge of which tokens Coinbase was considering listing in the second quarter of 2022 based on blockchain records of purchases prior to the exchange releasing that information.

The Coinbase CEO said “some market participants” might have been able to take advantage of its listing process by using on-chain data to monitor the exchange testing asset integrations as well as detecting small differences in the platform’s application programming interface, or API, responses. He added that the exchange wouldn’t “catch everything,” but would aim to work with other crypto firms and respond to feedback to adjust policies as needed.

“While this is public data, it isn’t data that all customers can easily access, so we strive to remove these information asymmetries,” said Armstrong. “We review assets as quickly as possible, and list everything we can — as long as we believe it’s safe and legal.”

Related: Coinbase insiders dump nearly $5 billion in COIN stock shortly after listing

A Coinbase listing can often result in a sudden price surge for a crypto project due to the size and popularity of the exchange. In May 2020, the price of OMG Network’s token OmiseGo surged 200% within 15 minutes of being listed on Coinbase before crashing. Morpheus Labs (MITX), Kromatika (KROM) and Big Data Protocol (BDP) — all tokens Coinbase named as being under consideration for listings — showed gains of 185%, 145%, and 204%, respectively, shortly following the exchange’s announcement in April 202.



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Xbox Games With Gold for May 2022 Revealed

Microsoft has announced that May 2022’s Games with Gold are Yoku’s Island Express, The Inner World – The Last Wind Monk, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and Viva Piñata: Party Animals.

As revealed on Xbox Wire, the four Games with Gold will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Yoku’s Island Express and Hydro Thunder Hurricane available starting on May 1.

Yoku’s Island Express is an open-world pinball game with Metroidvania and platforming elements. Players take on the role of Yoku, a pint-sized mailman turned hero as he traverses and works to save Mokumana Island.

We named it among our top ten Metroidvania games (that aren’t Metroid or Castlevania), and in our 8/10 review said: “Yoku’s Island Express is a novel Metroidvania-pinball hybrid that stands as something wholly unique and incredibly fun.”

Also available on May 1, but only until May 15, is Hydro Thunder Hurricane. This rocket-powered speedboat racing game from 2010 didn’t receive as much of IGN’s favor.

“Between uninspired references to the original game and its reliance on aged arcade racer elements,” we said in our 5/10 review, “Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a dull, monotonous experience that shows its hand early and fails to deliver on its pedigree.”

Available later in the month on May 16 is The Inner World – The Last Wind Monk, a sequel to the 2013 point and click adventure game. Players take on three characters – Robert, Laura, and Peck the pigeon – as they embark on an adventure to save their friends in a completely wacky world.

Last but not least, Viva Piñata: Party Animals is available on the same day but only available for two weeks until May 31. This isn’t a traditional Viva Piñata but a party game instead, featuring a number of minigames that players take part in using beloved characters of the franchise.

IGN didn’t love this one either, as in another 5/10 review, we said: “The inherent problem that really bogs down the action in Viva Pinata’s aesthetic successor is that the mini-games simply don’t stem from a fun design scheme.”

Be sure to redeem April 2022’s Xbox Games with Gold before they leave the service, which includes Another Sight, Hue, Outpost Kaloki X, and MX vs ATV Alive.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

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Aaron Rodgers gives update on Debo Samuel-Packers trade rumors

For all those wondering if the Packers will trade for wide receiver Deebo Samuel after passing on first-round targets, Aaron Rodgers has an update.

Rodgers went on the Pat McAfee show live to give his opinion on the Packers’ NFL Draft plans. While Green Bay didn’t select a wideout as Rodgers would’ve hoped, if he’s learned anything over the last few years, it’s to trust the vision Brian Gutekunst and the front office have laid out.

No. 12 didn’t want to steal the moment of two Georgia stars — Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt — who went 22nd and 28th overall, respectively.

“I’m sure Packer nation will be wondering why we didn’t take a receiver or trade up but at this point, you’ve just got to have some faith in the organization…we’re going to find a way in Matt’s offense to be successful like we always have,” Rodgers said.

Packers: Aaron Rodgers gives Deebo Samuel update

While the Packers didn’t select a wide receiver early, could they swing a trade for one of the top wideouts in the NFL?

Rodgers did admit that Green Bay was at one point in on Samuel, but also said that the 49ers don’t seem willing to trade him.

While Rodgers later said he was surprised by the Davante Adams trade given his decision to come back, he understands the front office’s predicament.

“I thought based on the number we offered Davante and being able to play with me for a few more years would definitely make a difference, but in the end he was ready to move on,” Rodgers said.

As the years have gone by, Rodgers has become more patient with the organization that drafted him, if only because they started including him in big decisions. While he’s not directly involved in the NFL Draft process, the future Hall of Famer doesn’t sound surprised by what’s transpired so far.

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PlayStation Cat Game Stray Pushed to Summer 2022

PlayStation has quietly announced a delay to it’s cat game Stray with a release now expected this summer.

The release window was previously set as spring 2022, but in a tweet (below) advertising indie games coming soon spotted by Eurogamer, PlayStation sneakily confirmed the delay.

Stray’s launch on PS5, PS4, and PC will mark two years since it was first shown at the PS5 reveal event, when it was originally expected to be a 2021 release.

Developer BlueTwelve’s objective is simple: “Our goal is to create a unique experience playing as a cat,” they said at the time.

But this isn’t your average house cat, as the players controls the kitty as it explores a robotic cybercity and tries to return home with the help of a drone called B-12.

BlueTwelve has been pretty quiet since the original reveal, only really sharing more information about the game in July last year when the postponement to spring 2022 was announced.

Several games from the original PS5 reveal, which took place in September 2020, have suffered from delays, with the COVID-19 pandemic doing game development no favours.

Gran Turismo 7, Horizon: Forbidden West, Deathloop, were among the biggest games to see delays, but Stray, alongside Goodbye Volcano High and Forspoken, remain the only games to remain unreleased.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.



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The Hair Clips Khloe & Kim Kardashian Wore on The Kardashians

If you aren’t sure about “keeping up with” these klips, check out some of the 5-star Amazon reviews.

A shopper shared, “I bought these to initially do a makeup tutorial on instagram and everyone was just interested in the clips. They literally do not leave any dents. They’re perfect!”

A hair stylist said, “I have used these a couple of times on bridal parties that have their hair styled already and the colors are great as well when the photography snaps some pictures.. It’s very useful for keeping hair out of their face without leaving that awkward crimp on their hair. Small but very useful product.”

An Amazon customer wrote, “Absolutely love these hair clips! Such an underrated necessity when getting ready. I would always just deal with getting my makeup in my hair because I didn’t think hair clips would really make a difference but I was wrong! I’ve always turned away the idea of ANY clip holding back any of my hair since I was born with 3x the normal amount of hair; no clip ever worked…but these do! They’re sturdy enough to keep my hair out of my face, and do not move a bit once in!”

A fan of the clips shared, “I wanted something to help hold straightened hair that doesn’t like to stay straight. These do the trick! They are not super tight fitting, so they don’t add a crimp to my flat ironed section of hair, but hold it straight until cooled. The results are nice, straight sections of hair!”

“Lovely little clips that don’t bend your hair while you do your makeup,” a fan of the product shared.

Someone else said, “Super great product for when applying makeup. I use mine everyday that I am rushing and don’t want my hair in the way.”

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4 Things to know about the Mobile Legends: Adventure “New Era” Event

Mobile Legends: Adventure (MLA) is the sequel to the addictive MOBA, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB). Unlike most mobile RPGs, MLA is an idle RPG that doesn’t demand hours of grinding as your heroes are always collecting resources for you, even when you are offline. You can pick it up for just a few fun minutes, and use the options to skip battles or enable auto-battling, to just kick back and watch the action.

Coming in May is New Era, a new annual event that will introduce a ton of updates such as new events, new heroes, and limited-time game modes with plenty of rewards. With this event you can gain a huge amount of rewards that will help you get your pick from over 100 heroes that you need to build your dream team.

1. Golden Wishes will be giving away a High Star-Level Hero

Beginning April 29th, if you complete tasks for 28 days you can permanently unlock a hero of your choice. By completing these tasks you will also be able to rack up thousands of diamonds and lots of upgrade materials. This high Star-Level hero is not only great for veterans looking for a huge power increase, but also for new players wanting to quickly beat the early stages.

2. A Tinted Mirage event will feature the release of the new hero Pharsa

The new Epic Hero, Pharsa, will be free to get during this Tinted Mirage event, and more Epic Pharsa cards and resources will be obtainable if you clear more stages. The new Tinted Mirage also comes with an interesting storyline about Pharsa’s revenge and Selena’s betrayal.

3. Call of the Crows, the new PvE card game mode, will be available for a limited time

MLA’s New Era is also introducing a new PvE card game mode, Call of the Crows. In Call of the Crows, you strategically select Hero Cards to craft a deck and then start a game. You will then tactically drag the cards onto the battlefield to defend the base, known as the Energy Core, and fight the enemies spawning on the right side. If you manage to win all levels you will collect all the extra rewards!

4. Four new hero skins will be available

Mobile Legends: Adventure has over 100 heroes with different skills and animations. During the New Era event, the Skin Store will feature four new hero skins for that limited time, each with diverse backgrounds and unique stories. Make sure to grab them while they’re available!

The 2022 New Era event will be available starting on April 29th and ending on June 2nd. Download Mobile Legends: Adventure for Android and iOS now and get in on this event before it’s too late.

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From Marvel Universe to Spike Lee, SLAM’s Connection to Film Runs Deep

Recent Hollywood blockbusters have got me considering options in alternate universes—Peter Parker-type ones, where I can see the Spidey meme lived out in real life. I’m not talking about the Metaverse, I’m talking about a temporary escape to the places on TV and movie screens that look more liveable than here. Where everyone is happy and I have secret superpowers that solve problems. All of them.

But before I decide where to call home, there’s something else to think about: How and where could SLAM exist in another dimension? That question has been answered, a few times over. 

The biggest world, a universe really, where SLAM has a presence is the Marvel Universe. Luke Cage series creator Cheo Hodari Coker—who also wrote SLAM 24’s cover story on Kobe Bryant—showed some love to his SLAM Fam by including a fictional excerpt of the PUNKS column (our former HS section, now called The Come Up) in the first episode of the Netflix show. Fast forward to a scene in Pop’s Barbershop, and some of the article’s finer details can be seen in the freeze frame. I strained my eyes to read more about “RUN-DSC…”

You’ll also find SLAM in the world of comedy, thanks to Shea Serrano and Arturo Torres, the bestselling writer and illustrator of a ton of New York Times’ hits like Basketball and Other Things, who immortalized fictional Sixers fan Jim Halpert from The Office on a cover that I’d happily buy multiple copies of. There’s also a rumor going around the SLAM Dome that the publication’s fine literature can be found in STARZ’ Survivor’s Remorse. Any world with a character played by Mike Epps could be fun. 

Back in 1998, two universes almost intertwined for real, for real. Filmmaker Spike Lee was working on his next masterpiece, He Got Game, and the film’s lead character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, was (at the time) about to be an even bigger deal than Ray Allen. By then, SLAM was kind of a big deal too. Spike shared SLAM’s love for the Knicks, the playful hate of Reggie Miller and understood that the magazine’s readers were his viewers. Our mutual audience would be flooding movie theaters to watch Denzel Washington rock a pair of Jordan XIIIs and battle Ray one-on-one. He also understood that (in the basketball world of the late ’90s) a SLAM cover was as big of a promo as anyone could get. SLAM Ed. Tony Gervino also saw it as a chance to pull just about any stunt necessary.

A plan was formed. Spike wanted a Jesus Shuttlesworth cover and SLAM was the only mag who could legitimately pull it off. The movie was in production, yet no one knew about it or Allen’s involvement, so the idea was to drop the Jesus cover as the ultimate April Fool’s prank in the spring of 1998. It would make history as the first SLAM cover featuring a fictional character. But it didn’t happen. An irritating leak meant that the element of surprise was gone and the concept was void.

While the Shuttlesworth cover may not have entered our galaxy, fans of Spike’s classic movie will have observed that “Coney Island Jesus” did in fact get a cover. It sits in pride of place above the TV of Jesus’ humble abode…and in Spike Lee’s office in Brooklyn.

Before emails and comment sections in social media, SLAM’s Trash Talk section was made up of physical letters. Not only would fans complain to the editors about stories, yell at readers who made up the previous issue’s Trash Talk and vent about their team’s losing streak, some would also submit carefully crafted pieces of art. Sometimes it was a sketch of an older cover, sometimes their favorite player, sometimes just their own version of the SLAM logo. One such submission came from a storyboard/design team based in L.A. who happened to be huge fans of SLAM. In writing, they requested back issues, t-shirts and even offered content suggestions. Those letters were from the team who worked on a little up and coming animated series called South Park.

The crew at South Park sent SLAM a few letters in the early days, but the one that really caught the staff’s attention was a reworked SLAM cover sent in the form of a greeting card. It featured  Kobe’s Issue 24 joint, only with Kenny’s head replacing the Spalding ball under Bryant’s arm. They wanted to work it into a story that would be aired, but (in true South Park style) would take it a step further, with Kobe holding an AK-47.

World events in the spring of ’99 led to this cover never happening—it’s probably better that it didn’t—but we’ll always remember when Kobe was hanging out in South Park.

Seeing the magazine immortalized in animated form is wild. It was Christmas 2020 when we were once again reminded of that feeling. The pandemic had me, my wife and our 1-year-old daughter stuck in our tiny flat in London on Christmas Day. It wasn’t all bad. We bought some fancy food and drinks, didn’t need to travel anywhere and Pixar was premiering a movie called Soul that gave us something to look forward to. We loved the film and appreciated the finer details of the world that the lead character, Joe Gardner, called home.

One such detail was something I’d missed completely. It sat—of course—in the barbershop scene, on the table by the lollipops. A copy of SLAM. It was instantly recognizable as a rework of Issue 106, LeBron’s logo cover, with a fictional baller from the Pixar universe. No one at SLAM knew about it ahead of time, but everyone thought it was dope.  

The movie was the work of Kemp Powers, a writer from Brooklyn who understood the cultural importance of SLAM. Soul’s release capped off a year marred with tension, yet Pixar’s world felt like a place of solitude. 

These SLAM covers may be fictional, but they provided a hint of familiarity and were a nod of appreciation from the designers of alternate universes. For those of us who need to escape, even for a moment, they’re as real as it gets. 



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