In recent centuries the world has been racked with animal on animal violence. You need not look further than Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and sometimes History Channel (check local listings). Every where we look some animal is killing another animal. But why? Is it for food? Are the creatures pre-programed to hate each other? Or has gang warfare spilled over into the animal kingdom? Only recently, since man has evolved hunting and tracking capabilities, has human on animal violence escalated. Some people, so called ’scientists’, have postulated that these behaviors are what allowed human beings to become the dominate species on our planet. A quick look out the window, if you live in an urban area at least, shows you that yes there are a lot of humans everywhere. But why has modern man chosen to still attack, kill, capture, and even eat animals? Is it because proteins obtained from meat and poultry are essential to a healthy diet? Is it because a number of domesticated species would no longer be able to survive on their own without human intervention? Or is it because of the destructive influence a certain video game has had on the populace?  As we have shown in previous articles, all violence in society can be blamed on video games, so it only make sense that animal cruelty must also be the fault of video games.

The game blamed for this recent surge in animal violence is, of course, Pokemon. In the game young children are encouraged to run away from home, live in remote areas, capture rare animals by forcing them to fight other rare animals, and then force them to live in small balls. A trip to a local pet store is all one needs to see the destructive influence Pokemon has had on the average pet owners. Small plastic balls are readily available for a number of different species. These balls force the animal to roam the house, walking in their own waste, attempting to free themselves before they are thrown at another animal and forced to fight it out for no reason what so ever. Small groups of children have been found wondering state parks attempting to capture animals and force them to fight each other. In a number of incidents the animals turned on their owners and mauled them. Not too long ago Michael Vick, and avid Pokemon fan, was arrested for running a dog fighting ring.

What is more disturbing is the far reaching nature of Pokemon. Because the advertising campaign was so wide spread and most people are so stupid, nearly everyone in the targeted age group was quickly swept up in the so called ‘pokemania’ leading to ‘poke-animal-abuse,’ ‘poke-black-market-trafficking,’ and eventually ‘poke-federal-prison.’ The U.S. Federal prison system is brimming with twelve year olds who played pokemon and then tried to buy a lion cub on the black market. Children could be seen jumping the protective barriers at zoo’s attempting to catch a rhino or battle a bear. Fighting fish sales jumped through the roof. Dog fighting, cat fighting, and in one disturbing case sheep fighting rings popped up with alarming numbers. Throughout the nineties and into the 2000’s local and federal agencies worked tirelessly to stop young kids from becoming wrapped up in the Poke-craze that put so many in jail. Similar to the DARE program, “Don’t catch any of them” campaigns were started. Though they had some impact little could be done to stop this violent trend.

Finally the poke-phenomenon has started to fade and so have the animal fighting rings. These strange events have shown us once again that video games cause more problems than the solve. If it weren’t for Pokemon most of the world would probably be vegetarian. With every new release of ‘different versions’ of Pokemon fears of violent resurgence worry the animal lover community.

In our last investigative report we covered the real world violence that Donkey Kong had caused between plumbers and gorillas. In this report we take a look at another game that rocked both the United States and the world abroad. This game was, of course, Q*bert. Before Q*bert’s release in 1982, pyramids were known as the most peaceful of all three dimensional geometries, and afterward they were known only as places of violence and graffiti. Q*bert was a violent foray into a dark and dangerous world, where people’s heads and color schemes were the target of malicious attacks.

Although human sacrifice had been commonplace atop the Mayan pyramids for centuries, it was not until the release of Q*bert in 1982 that the first ever report of violence atop one of the Egyptian pyramids was recorded. A small group of tourists were enjoying their walk up the steps of one of Egypt’s smaller pyramids, when a gang of kids, hopped up on glue and video games, began jumping down the pyramid trying to paint it blue. Many of the tourists suffered tremendous neck and head injuries as well as terrible mental distress and an inability to look at the color blue ever again.

Similar incidents began to happen at the great pyramids in Egypt. Aside from a small skirmish between a group of Dutch tourists and angry natives that took place on the eastern slope of the great pyramid in 1921, the Egyptian great pyramids have been amongst the most peaceful of the ancient wonders of the world. However, after the release of Q*bert, one British man climbed to the top of the pyramid and demanded that the entire pyramid be painted red or he would jump on everyone trying to remove him. Sadly he tripped and fell to his death before he could be removed and treated for his mania.

Violence began to spill over from the pyramids onto the streets of some major cities throughout the world. Stairs began to replace pyramids, and most cities had to enact laws preventing people from walking down more than one stair at a time. Forcing many people to serve time for simply trying to get out of work faster or trying to catch that train as it pulled up to the station. Many people would only use the handicap ramps and elevators for years after the release of Q*bert. In one incidence an old women was stuck in her older apartment building which had neither a ramp nor an elevator. Fire fighters were called in to remove her.

This game once again shows that video games, without a doubt, are the cause of violence in the real world. Before Q*bert, stairs and pyramids were safe, wholesome, and family oriented geometrical shapes. Afterward, these same places were quagmires of gangs and graffiti, no place for families or fun. If the world keeps putting out games of this nature, we can expect similar reactions from the consumer. As we all know, when the American public are given some new piece of culture they ultimately turn it into something depraved and violent. Video games are to blame.

Related Posts: OW: Investigative Report: Violence in Video Games, Part 1: Donkey Kong

This series is by Jeph Loeb (you know, the guy who killed off Captain America) so I fully expect to see Thor get his ass handed to him when these two square off. There are two things I expect from any comic book series written by Loeb. One is that he will ignore continuity to advance his story-lines, and two that he’ll kill off characters way too early for cheap shock value that has no real importance to to the storyline.

Just look at the beginning of this series already. The Red Hulk knocked out the Watcher. Has this guy ever read a Marvel comic before? Does he know who the Watcher is? Does he know what the Watcher can do? He knocked out the Watcher before issue #5 of this series. Who is Red Hulk going to take down by issue #7? Galactus? The Living Tribunal? This is utterly stupid.

I think we all know where Old-Wizard stands on the Thor vs Hulk debate. The old Thor is more powerful than the Hulk, and the new Thor (recreated by JMS, who unlike Loeb is a fantastic writer) should be able to easily handle the Hulk, green or red. This new Thor has taken down the Asgardian Destroyer. If he gets beaten by the Hulk it will be a long time before I pick up a Marvel comic again.

How many more uber powerful characters is the Hulk (or a version of him) going to beat? Between Pak and Loeb the Hulk has taken out Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, Hercules, She Hulk, Iron Man in his Hulk Buster armour, The Sentry, and worst of all, I can’t even bring myself to type this…The WATCHER! This is crossing the line between being a somewhat serious comic book to a complete joke. Do Pak and Loeb have some sort of hard on for the Hulk?

This could have been a great series, and maybe it will still turn out to be decent, if we get some sort of explanation of how the red Hulk knocked out the Watcher. You may remember that Thor was conveniently missing in action for the events of World War Hulk, had he been there, I have no doubt the Hulk would have beat him and the Sentry all at once. But now that Pak isn’t writing this series, this is the fight I’ve been waiting to see. The new Thor versus the Hulk. I just wish JMS would be the one to write it.

Regardless, I have a feeling Thor is going to get defeated and then saved by the Green Hulk. This would be beyond stupid. It would render all of JMS’s work on Thor meaningless. If that happened, I would love to see JMS write a comic book where the Thing clobbered the Hulk. That would be a fitting response. Time will tell what will happen in Hulk #5, but you can bet Old-Wizard will weigh in on it.

It is official; the Norwegian government has excavated the former apartment / love nest of Superman, and is now using it to store seeds.

No, not those kinds of seeds. That’s in Holland. It’s all the same continent though. Anyways, reports from around the world indicate that the Norwegian government financed the construction of the “Doomsday Vault” in order to fill the space with seed collections from around the world. It was done at the bare bones price of about 9.4 million American greenbacks.

The “vault” itself has been built into the side of a mountain that borders the North Pole. The storage space will be serving as the ultimate safety net against any type of human errors, such as war and poverty. It will also work great against world-wide crop changes, effects of globalization, global warming, and any other natural disaster.

So far, over a million seeds have been placed in the 427 foot deep icy chamber, with the hope that they may never be needed in an uncertain future. The United Nations also played a roll in the operation since 2004 by supplying much needed funding to the project, in order to promote crop diversity. The majority of the seeds are from plants that sustain global food supplies. There have also been calls for other types of plant life as well.

This is not the first project of its kind, as there is a similar seed bank in Sussex, England. Not to mention the unknown paranoid billion/multi-millionaires out there who have constructed their own Doomsday survival chambers. For when the day comes that the seas boil and the heavens fall those guys will be ready with a year supply of Dinty Moore stew and Easy-Mac. Plus, the US Government certified duct-tape and plastic wrap.

Rest assured the original Doomsday is still strapped to that meteor and hurtling through space so he won’t be threatening our global food supplies. Thanks again Superman. Or was it The Eradicator?

For more information, type “Norwegian Doomsday Vault” into your favorite search-engine. Read.