Superhero Media: Army of Darkness

Despite being a nerd of about the right age, and the holder of a degree in Film, I've never been much of a fan of the Evil Dead films, or Sam Rami's work in general. Like? They're fine? Just not my thing really. That said, I have an Ash for my Ultimate Alliance games (as well as general Zombie gaming) because I recognise that the films are popular and that Ash himself is an interesting enough hero to carry the story. I really feel that this is one of those films, like Ghostbusters, that I don't actually have to review, because anyone looking at this blog would probably have seen it more times than I have. About the only contribution I can make to the discussion is to point out that Lord Arthur is played by Marcus Gilbert, who played Ancelyn in the 1980s Doctor Who story "Battlefield", so why bother, really? 

Army of Darkness would make a pretty good miniatures game, as only Ash and the car-chariot are not readily available in miniature form in a variety of scales; I've personally only seen heroic 28mm Ashes. Which, of course, suits me fine, as that scales him nicely with my repainted Heroclix. Man, what else? I want to have a game where Ash joins the Nightstalkers and/or the Croatonans, which makes me think of a team-up between Ash and the Ryan Reynolds version of Hannibal King. In fact, I think that's the trick with Ash and the Evil Dead franchise in general, that Ash is everyman enough to transfer into different settings and conflicts and remain interesting and entertaining. Not only is he as exasperated as we, the audience, imagine we may be in similar circumstance, but he is also as enduring and resourceful as we would like to think of ourselves as being. I mean, Ash is pretty dumb, and he manages to save the day, so I, being much smarter, must be capable of doing the same, right? 

I don't think I'll ever be a big fan of this franchise, though I did enjoy the Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash comic and want to include Ash in some games. Much like Buffy, I think my lack of engagement with the Evil Dead series comes from not having grown up with it; I didn't start watching them until I was in my twenties, so there's no glaze of nostalgia to distract me. The films are fine, just not my kind of thing. As I said way back in my Ash Vs Evil Dead - Season 1 "Superhero Media", I probably won't be doing any more of these. Both Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 aren't really superhero films, even by my loose definition, and I just don't feel like watching more Ash Vs Evil Dead, especially with the huge backlog of DVDs and recordings I have to get through. If I can get my hands on the Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash comics again, that one may show up at some point.

Miniatures Finished: Goons and Thugs

I have a large collection of generic thugs and goons for gaming, twenty to be exact, which makes a nice big group or several smaller ones, depending on the game being played. When first putting together my Ultimate Alliance display game[s], I just grabbed every suitable miniature I could find and painted them up, because time was a major factor. Now that I have enough "essential" pieces for superhero wargames, I find myself focused more on factors like storage, transport and functionality. 
Simply put, given that these thugs tend to be one-hit throwaway antagonists in the first encounter of the game, having a large box of heavy, metal miniatures that are too easily chipped and bent. Much like my generic Zombies, I've decided to convert all of the thugs over to plastic and just throw them in a box. Step one, paint the last few to reach twenty. Now done.

Some metal goons now destined for other things. 

Reaper, Copplestone, Void, converted Reaper, Copplestone 

 

More metal. 

Reaper, Reaper, Reaper, Void, Void 

 

These Droogs I'll actually be keeping for Brutal games. 

OOP from Fiendish Fabrications. 

 

 

My first batch of plastic goons. I realised that I had a whole lot of Heroclix and plastic heads and weapons left over from other kits. With a little work and a repaint, they come together nicely. Also, if I need any more, they're really cheap, much more so than metal miniatures. Look forward to more plastic goons soon. 

 

Superhero Media: Ghostbusters

Why is Ghostbusters such a classic? Yes, it's a clever, high-concept comedy from an era that perfected high-concept comedies, with a brilliant cast and bevy of one-liners; but it's certainly not the only film of that era that meets these qualifications. The story is loose, the mythology is nonsensical and Peter Venkman comes across as a sexual predator, but damn if none of that really matters in the end, because Ghostbusters is a genuine classic. In fact, I'm not really going to bother discussing the film in any sense other than how to justify it as superhero media and how to roll it into your superhero gaming. The Ghostbusters themselves work pretty well in a superhero setting, being a group of scientists with fuzzy qualifications that manage to create nuclear-powered super weapons to hunt ghosts because reasons. Venkman is a psychologist, in case you forgot, which kind of just makes his predating on students even the more creepy now that I think of it. As a private entity, the Ghostbusters are free to work for the government only when necessary (like being hired by the Mayor in the final act of the film), placing them among the likes of Damage Control or even Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. 

Given that the Ghostbusters, as the name implies, bust ghosts, putting them up against, say Gentleman Ghost or Nightmare makes a lot of sense, maybe even a "misunderstanding fight" with Deadman or Ghost Rider. Let's not forget Gozer though, part ancient deity, part Lovecraftian horror, part Prince video, and surely a worthy opponent for Doctors both Strange and Fate. Flip that around, and you could easily have the Ghostbusters taking on Dormammu, Yig or Trigon, which opens up a fun range of allies for them to have, like Detective Chimp, Brother Voodoo, Raven, and many more. If you really run the Lovecraftian route, there's pretty much no better place to go than the BPRD, with Hellboy and Co taking on the big nasty whilst the boys in grey wrangle the nasty ghosts that have been kicked up; there's a game right there I could run tomorrow if I wanted. Actually, I have a display day coming up, maybe I should consider it... Or even just gaming out something like Infestation a bit better, most wargamers have plenty of zombies kicking around, I know I do. 

Now that I'm on this kick, I really can't seem to stop coming up with ideas. Lost Patrol with Ghostbusters vs Zombies. Ghostbusters (all of 'em) as an "Exorcist" unit in a SHIELD or UNIT force. Classic vs 2016 Ghostbusters in a Civil War campaign (or Secret Invasion!). Ghostbusters meet Sandman (Morpheus) and have to clear Nightmare out of the Dreaming. All this just since my last rewatch a couple of days ago, if you're a big fan of the film, you can probably come up with even more. Crooked Dice do a good set of Ghostbusters, even doing Slime Canister versions from Ghostbusters II, Lewis and Janine in full kit and the 2016 versions, so, again, you could have a small force for a skirmish game if that's your kind of thing. I think I'll be leaving Ghostbusters for a bit, having not watched it for a number of years before this last viewing; it certainly felt like the hiatus made it more enjoyable. That said, I think some more Ultimate Alliance games need to feature Venkman, Stanz, Zeddmore and Spengler, so watch out for that.

Kill Team Aesir: Part IV

Members of Kill Team Aesir, including Heimdall, Thunderstrike, Bill the Warrior, Loki, Lady Sif, Agnar the Fierce and one of the enigmatic Primaris "Einherjar", were dispatched to an abandoned research base, looking for evidence of a Xenos plot against the Imperium. Unfortunately, a Death Cult, led by an Inquisition Agent, have stumbled upon the same base and are looking to recover the same artifacts. 

 

Kill Team Aesir prepares to enter the research centre (played by my Doom Boardgame tiles). 

 

 The Death Cult of "The as-yet unnamed Martyr but don't we look nice in orange?" gather (Played by Brendan). 

 

The tunnels make for a different style of Kill Team game. 

 

Kill Team Aesir move into the building in standard two by two cover formation.  

 

The, much faster, cultists spread out much more efficiently (the cult uses the Dark Eldar rules).

 

Seeing that they're outflanked from the start, Heimdall orders his Veterans into the main space, taking Thunderstrike with him down the flank to tackle the Cult Leader. 

 

The Death Cult Assassin and taciturn Einherjar clash, with the mighty marine coming off second, but buying precious time for the other Veterans.

 

Thankfully, backup has arrived, with Loki cutting through several cultists. 

Bill and the Cult Specialist pull off an amazing feat by defeating each other simultaneously with their flamers. 

 

Loki does his best to cut through more cultists, but the Assassin makes off with the objective and the day is lost. 

Back at Valhalla Fortress, the After Action Reports of this incident gives Watch Master Odin pause. Who is this cult of "The as-yet unnamed Martyr but don't we look nice in orange?"? What Inquistor are they working under? And why are they working directly against the might of the Deathwatch? 

This was a fun game, trying out new board layouts and different ways to play Kill Team with a more narrative bent. Although I lost, a couple of better die rolls would have forced a draw or maybe a win; I'm still pretty happy with the result given how hard it was to keep up with the Dark Eldar on the larger board. Keep an eye out for more Kill Team Narrative games in the future and probably on another blog or something, it's all in development. 

 

Superhero Media: Gamera Vs Viras

As a fan, I tend to defend Kaiju films in general, but also particularly the Gamera series, which gets a bad rap thanks to being known mostly through Mystery Science Theater 3000 internationally. Personally, I find most Gamera films to be at least interesting, if not downright compelling. That said, Gamera Vs Viras is pretty bad and you can probably skip it. The film opens when an alien spaceship composed of bee-themed xmas baubles attempts to land on Earth, but is destroyed by Gamera, as the last transmission is made, the plan is clear, destroy Gamera! Meanwhile, two boy scouts, one Japanese, one American, steal a miniature submarine and encounter Gamera, providing vital exposition in case the audience hasn't seen any of the previous films. Actually, if you haven't seen any previous Gamera films before watching Gamera Vs Viras, don't worry, because there's plenty of footage from the previous films padding the run-time. Yeah, I don't what happened here, maybe they ran out of money, but once the aliens take control of Gamera and send him against the cities of the world, all of the footage is recycled, and much of it in black and white. 

Much of the story focuses on the two Boy Scouts running around the alien ship, trying to figure out how to help free Gamera so that he can destroy the invaders. To be fair, the inside of the spaceship and the glowing eye effects on the aliens are pretty cool, but aside from 'archival footage', Gamera is in very little of Gamera Vs Viras, with the only real action book-ending the film. Viras is revealed to be one of those alien groups where the species, planet and individuals are all called Viras, and they're out to conquer Earth for non-specific reasons. When Gamera is freed by the small boys, Viras is forced to combine all the crew together to become a giant squid monster and the battle begins. There's an extended sequence where the two men in rubber costumes are wrestling underwater, which is pretty cool, but not worth watching the entire film for, though I feel bad for the poor stuntmen that had to manage those suits in a swimming pool. 

There's a fair bit missing from Gamera Vs Viras that would be present in other Gamera films, like Gamera battling the enemy Kaiju once, losing, and learning tactics for the next fight, or Gamera miraculously healing from a dire injury, which creates the suspicion that maybe this wasn't a Gamera film to begin with? The basic outline comes across more like an extended script for Super Sentai or Ultraman which Gamera happened to stumble into. As a fan of mashing up every damn IP I can get my hands on, having Gamera stumble into an Ultraman villain's plot, the two heroes having a "misunderstanding fight" then teaming up sounds great to me, and I may have to run a Kaiju game along those lines at some point. Assuming that I can find both Ultraman and Gamera in the same scale as my existing Kaiju stuff for less that $80 each. I want some new Gamera films, and new Gamera merchandise. 

Miniatures Finished: 10/10/18

A reorganisation of my undercoated but as-yet unpainted supers minis has led to me finishing characters in something of an odd order of late. There's no intended structure or order to things, I just grab out whatever takes my fancy and go from there. It's a fun way to paint. 

The Shadow: I was using this as my "Jaques Noir" for WWII supers, but I've found a better model and decided to merge this one over into the Ultimate Alliance set. Of course, I only noticed after I took the picture that the lining of his coat is meant to be red, so expect to see him again soon. Reaper Bones. 

Leatherwing: In adding more supers to my club's annual Pirate events, how could I not include Pirate Batman? Sadly, he didn't get a run this year, due to changing over to Blood and Plunder from Legends of the High Seas, I'll need to redo the rules for The Phantom, Black Panther and The Doctor. When I'm done with that and Leatherwing, I'll post them up here. Heroclix. 

Snorlax: Mum came home with this figure more than a decade ago and it's been waiting for some love since then. As well as being another option for Pokemon Trainer Taupe, Snorlax will make a fun little "Easter Egg" on display tables, especially if he's sleeping somewhere inconvenient and blocking a road. Toy. 

Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner): I got a bunch of odd little clix when the games store I used to work at cleared out it's prize support to make space, including my least favourite Green Lantern of Sector 2814. I never really got into Kyle, because he always seemed like a major Mary Sue, being a comic book artist with a killer apartment and hot, half-Japanese girlfriend. However, this is a really nice miniature and it was a joy to paint. Heroclix. 

Ultron 6: I had this one sitting on the shelf for a bit as I debated weather or not to collect several Ultrons so that I could do an "Ultron Unlimited" game. At the moment, I'm leaning away from the idea, as there aren't too many nice Ultron Heroclix. As a result, this old paintjob got an update. Heroclix. 

Spidergirl: Gotta love alternate-universe characters in comics, especially someone as fun as May "Mayday" Parker, the Sensational Spider-Girl! This is another of several miniatures I collaborated on with a friend to teach her to paint. She did the basecoats and washes, and the big highlights, I did the fiddly details. She's got some talent, I hope she goes back to painting again soon. Heroclix. 

Superhero Media: Batman - Under the Red Hood (film)

Ok, now let's talk about Under the Red Hood as a complete story. The animated film differs from the comic in a number of ways, some better, some not quite as good, but because the better stuff is more noticeable, the film tends to be regarded as the superior product in the fandom. In fact, Under the Red Hood tends to appear not only on "Best Animated Batman Films" lists, but also "Best Batman Films" lists overall; it doesn't get quite the praise of Mask of the Phantasm or The Dark Knight, but is lauded the same. Easily the best change is having Jason Todd returned to life by Ras'Al Ghul, feeling guilty for leading Joker to Batman in revenge, dumping him in a Lazarus pit. In fact, the inclusion of elements from Death in the Family makes the narrative stronger overall. There are changes that irk me, or lessen the adaptation somewhat, but what they all tend to come back to is time; at a little over an hour, Under the Red Hood has to cut a great deal to fit everything in. Not that all cuts are bad, in fact, Batman figuring out the Red Hood's identity earlier makes for more dramatic tension, but there isn't much space for the story to "breathe". 

For me, the annoying cuts are to the expanded characters, with generic power-armoured soldiers replacing Captain Nazi and Hyena and, most baffling, Black Mask recruiting the Joker to kill Red Hood. I get it, they already had a cast for Joker and he is the most famous Batman antagonist, but it just doesn't make too much sense for someone as smart as Black Mask to hire someone as unpredictable as Joker, in fact it backfires straight away and Black Mask almost ends up dead. Maybe Hyena and Captain Nazi were a bit too obscure for an animated film, but Joker still seems like a much worse choice than, say Tallyman, Deadshot or Clayface. Much like both versions of Superman II, the 'ideal' version of Under the Red Hood seems to be between both the comic and the film. I think Under the Red Hood could be a good candidate for a live-action film, so long as the script is kept tight and not too much time is taken up with Batman brooding over things or too much grunting. Also some female characters would be good, there's more in the animated film, but the imbalance is still pretty poor; maybe sneak in Spoiler, Catwoman or Oracle if making a big-budget film out of it. 

Again, much like Superman II, both versions of Under the Red Hood kind of need to be experienced to get the better picture of what the story could be. Were I to be so silly as to attempt to put together a list of "essential" Batman media, both incarnations of Under the Red Hood would be on there, and it does form part of my "Head Canon". Red Hood, as a character, never really gets better than he is in this story either, the emotional intensity can't be maintained once the identity of Jason Todd is revealed and both he and Batman have confronted one another. The great thing about Red Hood in this story isn't how hyper-competent or edgy he is, but rather, that under all of the plans and skills, he's revealed to be an angry young man with a chip on his shoulder and one good point to make. The mythologising of the Batman family of characters is all too common in the fandom, and seeing a story make them all too human and flawed is what keeps me coming back to Under the Red Hood.

Kill Team Aesir - Part III

Kill Team Aesir were dropped into a wasted industrial landscape (still being built and painted by me) when reports came in that Dark Elf forces, possibly under orders from Malekith, a top target for the Deathwatch. Deathwatch Veterans Thor, Volstaag, Fandral and Hogun were dispatched under the leadership of Veteran Sergeant Heimdall.

One day, I will Wargame in a well-lit venue. 

Kill Team Aesir is due for some paint as soon as I finish up some more Bush Wars gear. 

Sinister Dark Elves move out to further their sinister goals. 

Kill Team Aesir moves in to clean house. 

The Deathwatch take up guard around the objective.

The Dark Elf leader and Fandral square off for the cataclysmic duel of the match. Fandral won, but I'd lost the game two turns previously by being indecisive. 

The Dark Elf Dark Lance is a nasty weapon, capable of downing a Space Marine in one shot. 

A Witch Elf, hopped up on combat drugs, drags down the God of Thunder in single combat. 

Still enjoying Kill Team, even hopping into a campaign at Axes and Ales soon, but man, is there a learning curve with so many factions and abilities. On technicalities, I won this game, but, in reality, my opponent had me on the ropes the entire game. The Dark Eldar get stronger as turns go by, so you really need to push early to keep them at bay. 

Yes, I will get painting the Deathwatch soon, I promise. 

Superhero Media: The Mummy (2017)

I actually kind of enjoyed it. Yes, The Mummy is silly, generic and tries a little too hard to build a 'cinematic universe', but there is really a lot to enjoy if you don't take it seriously. First things first, no, this isn't as good as the version with Brendan Fraiser, or even Abbot and Costello, but Tom Cruise is not the problem. You may not like Cruise on a personal level around his faith and treatment of people who confront him, but there's really no denying that he's a solid actor, especially in leading-man action roles. In fact, the casting on The Mummy is solid right though, even with Russel Crowe as Henry Jekyll, who was probably my favourite character in the entire undertaking, with Russ' trademark 'short fuse' working well. The scene where he injects his hand with a serum (to reverse the change) casually during a conversation or when he slowly spirals into Hyde before being stopped by the female lead are scenes worth watching on their own, and probably even the entire film, if you're painting or whatever at the same time. I was honestly excited for more 'Dark Universe" if only because Universal could really put some money behind such a franchise. 

The titular Mummy is an evil sorceress who tried to conquer ancient Egypt through magic and bringing the god Set into the world to rule by her side. As dull as the "evil woman seeks to usurp the patriarchy through foul magic" trope is (not to mention pretty sexist), the Mummy being female and the apocalyptic tone borne by the return of Set are reasonably engaging. That the mummy uses sexual wiles to lure men into her sway is, again, generic, but Cruise having to tear himself between a rotting corpse and the generic blonde female lead makes for some fun scenes, as well as his dead friend giving him advice An American Werewolf in London style. The threadbare plot tends to jump from action scene to exposition to action scene, but that's par for the course with these kind of blockbusters, and I found the pace to be engaging enough that I was really struggling to understand why The Mummy received such universally bad reviews. After watching a couple of reviews, it seems the 'world-building' is also an issue for many. 

Again, I actually like of liked the world-building. Maybe I'm just an oldschool nerd who's way too into continuity, but the idea of a secret society built by Henry Jekyll to "combat evil" is pretty interesting; I would have liked to see where that went. The film ends with Cruise, now with the Mummy's powers, but working on his own moral compass, riding into the desert and Jekyll saying that he's out there when they need him. Rather than having a hidden scene in the credits, there are images that hint at other monsters out there in the world, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula and the Bride of Frankenstein. I'm not sure what a villain for all of these monsters would be, but I can't help but imagine an "Avengers" of Dracula, the Mummy, a Werewolf, Frankenstein's Monster and the Invisible Man teaming up for a film it seems we'll never get now. Martian invasion? Lovecraftian horrors? Who knows, but I do feel it's a bit of a shame we'll never see it. I found The Mummy to be quite enjoyable, but your experience may be different, as always, try it for yourself before you judge.