It's becoming a global media event and we're a global media outlet - what did you expect? Also, the holiday weekend last weekend and the holiday weekend this weekend mean that I'm a bit strapped for time so there you have it!

As Prince William and Kate Middleton prepare to tie the knot at Westminster Abbey, we here at the Sidekick Blog make our way to a secluded corner of the garden party, take off our shoes and socks, losen our dickie bows, dip our feet in the water feature, order some more cocktails and reminisce about great weddings of yore.

That involved comic book characters. And perhaps didn't attract quite somuch world wide attention.

They're not really in order of preference, lavishnes or anything like that, they're just weddings. So grab your confetti, dust off your morning suit and grab a box of tissues. For drying your eyes, dirty!!

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Link: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/06/dc-announces-batman-europa-six-years-ago/

With the launch of Batman Inc, it has reminded me of one of my all time biggest comic book gripes. One of the things that has always bugged me about ongoing superhero comic books (especially the big two) is their need to shake things up every now and then with some kind of world/european tour. You can look it in two ways:

1) It's an interesting way to take a character out of their usual environment, mix things up and show some lip service to fans around the world.

or the way I usually look at it:

2) When you run out of ideas for a character, send them on holiday so they can meet generic stereotypical foreigners and return after a year having achieved nothing and with the status quo resumed.

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Link: http://www.sidekickcomicsuk.com/blogs/blog5.php/2011/01/04/sidekickcast-episode-50-home-aamp-away

For the 50th episode of the Sidekickcast (which you can find here) we wanted to give a little something back to our loyal listeners so we decided to run a competition. I'm not going to tell you what you have to do to win but there is an obvious clue in this post, you'll just have to listen to the show for that. I can tell you what you'll win though; we've got a Boneman avatar branded mug (see my avatar in the right hand corner of this post, that's it) signed by a whole host of comic book creators, including:

Chris Lynch
Jamie McKelivie
Paul Cornell
Anthony Johnston
Kieron Gillen
and
Chris Claremont
If you want to win the mug simply send your answer to either

sidekickcast@sidekickcomicsuk.com

or tweet to @sidekickcast using the hashtag #Iwantamug.

Link: http://www.londonexpo.com/

I had an absolutely great time at the MCM Expo 2010. One of the things that really made it, other than the things discussed by Gavin here, was the Cosplayers. They were an absolutely permanent fixture of the 3 day event, so much so that when on the way back from the Expo I found it weird to look around and not see them brightening up people's days.

So hat's off to all of the Cosplayers that made it to MCM Expo 2010. I didn't manage to make it to the Euro Cosplay finals like I'd wanted to but these folk certainly made up for it. The love and attention to detail that went into these guys' and gals' costumes really needed to be seen first hand to be believed, I just hope that these pics I snapped whilst wandering around do them justice.

If you see yourself here, post a comment at the end - it'd be great to hear from you and also the perfect opportunity for you to inform me that you are in fact Kurosaki Ichigo from Bleach and not Aunt May from Spiderman.

Ladies and gents I present to you, and in no particular order, the Cosplayers of MCM Expo 2010!

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So much went on at this weekend's MCM Expo at London Dockland's Excel centre that the only way to sum it up was to make some kind of list. So here are my ten most memorable thoughts/moments/things I learnt from the weekend:

1. Nearly 50,000 people went through the doors of the London MCM Expo this year; a pretty titanic effort by anyone's standards and easily making it the UK's biggest comic con, are you listening Mr Millar.

2. There are cosplayers out there for everything, from Resident Evil to Naruto to Bannanas in Pyjamas. You name it and somebody out there will dress up like it and tredge down to the Excel centre to display their chosen ploomage. Don't believe me? Fellow Sidekick, Ned will be along soon with his rundown of all the cosplay action.

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Link: http://www.londonexpo.com/

London's MCM Expo has bagged another big name for its show, running from 29 to 31 October 2010 at Excel London... none other than the godfather of the X-Men himself, Mr Chris Claremont.

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CLICK IMAGE TO EMBIGGEN

I opened my emails this mornig to be presented with the image you see before you, nothing else other than the title; All New, All Different. Well played Marvel, you may've just got me interested in this book with as little work as possible. The All New, All Different tagline is something that has been part of X-Men lore ever since the Wein/Claremont relaunch back in 1975. This new book looks as though it stars a few of those characters, all of whom should be dead! Is this a throwback to what happened in Necrosis? Frankly I don't care, if it means we get Banshee back then I'll be one happy customer, may be a little too soon for Nightcrawler though?

What the Purifiers did next...

At the end of God Loves, Man Kills, Styrker was arrested, having survived being shot by police.
Following this he escaped from prison and intended, again, to commit suicide.
During his planning, he discovered the Nimrod Sentinel.
Nimrod appeared in Days of Future Past as the most advanced Sentinel of that time.
Sentinels are mutant-hunting giant robots.
When Rachel Summers (Scott and Jean’s daughter from an alternate time-line) travelled from the future, he hunted her to present-day New York and was befriended by a construction worker, Jaime Rodriguez, who obviously didn’t fully appreciate who or what Nimrod was.
Nimrod remained in cover, gathering information and altered his prime directive, to destroy all mutants, choosing instead to only hunt mutant outlaws.
He discovers a piece of the Master Mold.

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You mean it wasn't entirely ad-libbed? Dean Keaton gone straight?!?

God Loves, Man Kills

Marvel Graphic novel #5, 1982
Written by Chris Claremont, art by Brent Anderson.
Why this?
Viewed by many, including Wikipedia, to be the seminal X-Men story.
Formed the basis for X2.
Penned by a writer at the pinnacle of his abilities during a period of his work with which I am both familiar and enamoured.
Deals with the themes that really set the X-Men apart in the earlier days.

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