Superhero Media: One Punch Man - Season 2

I don't spend too much time browsing fan videos online, but I have seen enough titles and thumbnails to understand that many find the second season of One Punch Man to be lackluster, if not outright terrible. Personally, I enjoyed the series and felt that it did some good world-building and introduced some interesting characters. Remember that many Anime, including One Punch Man, are adapted from weekly manga, which are highly episodic and don't necessarily fit well with a television schedule. That's why the second season ends on such an odd note, with Garou being not really defeated and the monster society still poised to wipe out humanity, because it's the better breaking-point from the manga, rather than being an ideal season close. It's annoying, but that's the way Anime works sometimes, just look at where the season breaks in Dragon Ball Z are, they make even less sense half the time. The story picks up after the cities have been repaired in the aftermath of the alien attack, Saitama and Genos are keeping busy fighting monsters, when Saitama happens across one of the strongest heroes on the planet, King. 

King it turns out, has no powers, but has been at the sites of several of Saitama's victories and, through a misunderstanding, has received credit for them. King and Saitama strike up a friendship, mostly around playing video games, because they're the one thing that Saitama actually loses at. Meanwhile, a renegade martial artist known as Garou is hunting down heroes whilst claiming that he is a monster and wanting to take on any Class S hero he can get his hands on. The "Hero Hunter" is worrying the Hero Association, having defeated several prominent heroes, but they're more focused on the massive wave of monsters that are suddenly attacking the city. Also, Saitama participates in a Martial Arts tournament to learn about fighting. If there is a complaint I have about the narrative of this season, it would be that a lot of things are happening simultaneously, with focus jumping around a lot. As I was watching the programme episodically, rather than binging it out quickly, I found I lost track sometime, only realising later that I had forgotten about a plot thread here and there. 

As he spends most of the series involved in a tournament, Saitama does a lot less killing monsters in a single punch than the first season. I can understand that some fans felt let down about this, but I appreciate that the story changes in this regard, because it stops the "One Punch" from becoming a tedious "Team Rocket is blasting off again" moment every episode. The Hero Association gets some more screen time, and a bit more exposition, for example, it is revealed that many of the executives are dynastic and so heavily paid that they are utterly disconnected from day-to-day living; I'm hoping there's a pay-off for that at some point. The little of the Monster Society that is seen promises an interesting antagonist, but the threat is quickly undercut with Saitama killing swathes of monsters off-screen. This season of One Punch Man has a "bridging" quality to it, like many a part-two film, which I am more willing to forgive than most, but I understand that it is frustrating to many. Still, I put off My Hero Academia to watch this, so I know which I'd rather spend my time on.

Thinking Out Loud: Nintendo Movies

Whilst this isn't strictly superhero related, I have some thoughts I wanted to share and this is about the only forum I have for such a thing, other than ranting at people at parties. I'm not so much going to pitch ideas for films based on Nintendo properties, but rather, I want to discuss the lack of any existing films along those lines. Yes there is the infamous Super Mario Bros, but how did that get one company so gun-shy that there aren't even any terrible straight to video films kicking around? Well, there is Donkey Kong, the 1997 animated series with a "movie" that is regarded as dire and unwatchable, but why just that one? Given the huge amount of profitable IP that Nintendo is sitting on, I find it shocking that there aren't more cheap cash-ins out there. A a general rule, Video Game movies get a bad rap, I feel that's undeserved, as a couple are passable in my reckoning, but I wonder if it's simply a matter of quantity rather than quality? Look at superhero films, before the MCU, there were, what, three or four genuinely good Superhero films? Adapting a different medium and/or genre well takes time, we're still seeing the Fantasy genre butchered on television and celluloid. 

Really, putting together a film based on The Legend of Zelda or Metroid isn't all that hard. Both Legend and Kubo and the Two Strings are pretty close to a Zelda narrative to begin with, just slap Link, Zelda and Ganon into a basic fantasy quest narrative and it should turn out fine with a decent cast and crew. There doesn't need to be all of the dungeons, medals, items and magic stones, because only the hardcore fans are going to get that reference anyway. Think about the classic Ant-Man helmet in Avengers: Endgame, it's a fun moment for me, but the film doesn't need to explain what it is. Having a little fairy tell Link to go get a sword and some Triforce pieces is kind of enough. See also: Metroid, it's kind of just an Aliens riff with a woman in power armour, throw in Ridley or Kraid and it should be a tight ninety minutes with a post-credits sting. The concept/insistence that getting into the minutiae of the source material is puzzling to me, as that's exactly the kind of thing that drags adaptation down; look at the two film versions of The Shining if you need further proof. The MCU stuff works so well because the films are solid before they add in all the Easter Eggs, not because of said eggs. 

Don't expect to see any of my "The Pitch" articles about this kind of thing anytime soon, but I do have some ideas. Like, a Kirby film seems pretty obvious to me, in the vein of a younger-pitched Pixar or Dreamworks joint. Kirby crashes to Pop Star and teams up with, I don't know, Gooey and Adele to save all of the food from King Dedede is a pretty straightforward script to work from and could likely turn a reasonable profit; Kirby is naturally pretty marketable and toyetic. Donkey Kong Country is a buddy road adventure with two monkeys, tell me you can't get Jordan Peele and Josh Gad to voice-over that one, really overusing "It's on like Donkey Kong" as a catch-phrase. So there could be a bad run of cheap cash-ins on Nintendo IPs, big deal, is that really a worse state of affairs than download fan-subs of Japanese TV specials or watching the cutscenes from The Shadow Emissary on YouTube for the twenty third time? Well, that's about all I had in me on this one, more superhero stuff next week.

Superhero Media: Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance

Whilst people are still disregarding my opinion on the first Ghost Rider, because I dared to enjoy it, I may as well get some nice things down about Spirit of Vengeance, it's not like I have a huge readership anyway. Nic Cage is good again, acting a little more unhinged in human form, and the motion-capture for Ghost Rider has a haunting marionette quality to it that would have been a better approach in the first film. Johnny Blaze's life is on the skids once he tried to work with the Rider in the first film (kind of, we'll cover that later) and now he wanders the back-waters of Eastern Europe, trying to keep ahead of the law and drink himself to death. I guess Ghost Rider decided to leave Las Vegas at some point? These are the jokes people. The film opens with an ancient order of monks being attacked by mercenaries and Idris Elba helps a young woman and her son escape. Losing the fleeing civilians, Idris is forced to seek out the one man who can track evil best, Johnny Blaze. 

There's a plot about Mephisto wanting to get the boy, because he's a vessel for evil on Earth and apparently he needs to walk the Earth in a flesh suit in this version. Again, he's not called Mephisto, but I honestly can't remember what the character was named, so I'm going to keep calling him by his comic book name. Idris Elba (who is French for some reason) convinces Blaze to help him by promising to remove the Ghost Rider from him with Christian Magic and then there's a huge dump of Ghost Rider deep-cut lore for some reason, which I guess is pretty nice to see, but derails the film somewhat. The effects are better in Spirit of Vengeance, in that the team works around their limitations and lack of budget, rather than putting all of the CGI front and centre. Ghost Rider and Blaze are wearing the same clothes, but they get burned and blackened and the same happens with the motorcycle, meaning a lot more is done with practical effects, which always looks better. There's a great fight scene where Ghost Rider jumps into a mining rig, lighting the whole thing up with hellfire and tearing up a small army of goons. 

As well as Mephisto, Ghost Rider has to fight, of all people, Blackout. Don't worry if you don't know who that is, I only know him from background shots in The New Avengers and the companion Handbook article. Aside from his origin, they stay pretty close to how the character looks and works in the comics, which I felt was a nice touch. After separating himself from Ghost Rider, Blaze has to let the demon back in to save the boy and he rides off at the end of the film pretty much back where he started, but more at peace with his calling as an infernal hero. Spirit of Vengeance is fine. It's a perfectly fine film. Some parts make it better, some worse, but overall, it maintained my interest and I didn't feel like I wasted my time at all. Once again, I'm excited to see how Ghost Rider hits the big screen in the MCU, hopefully with a better team behind the film.

Miniatures Finished - 31/12/18

Much like my Goons and Thugs, I decided that lugging around a figure case full of metal civilians was a bit pointless, so I'd be better replacing them with more durable plastics that can rattle around a box safely. For the most part, I just grab "civilian" Heroclix and dunk them in some Army Painter dip, apply some matte spray varnish and base. 

And there's some other stuff too, I'm still painting lots of Sci-Fi minis and Kaiju, but there's always room for a hero or two. 

Totoro: A toy I found in a store, he makes a nice addition to my Impudent Mortal bus shelters. All I did was add a base for stability. 

Leatherneck: This classic TMNT baddie looked better in the cartoons, but the quality and dynamic pose of this mini is really great for the price. Heroclix. 

Skrull Infiltrator: Embrace Change. I picked up a bag of Imperial Guard bits off a friend and it included a Vox Caster Guardsman in a nifty "at rest" pose. As I can't leave well-enough alone, I just had to give him a head-swap and make him an infiltrator. I may have started adding a Skrull to every army I work on, just because. Converted Games Workshop. 

Civilians: I seem to have gotten a bad can of Tamiya Matt Clear, because there's still some shine on these. They may not be as nice as whitemetal miniatures, but for under a dollar each, these Heroclix come up nicely. Ultimate Dazzler, Bruno Manhiem and Wonderman. Heroclix. 

Superhero Media: Superman Doomsday (2007)

I'm just going to throw this out there, maybe The Death of Superman isn't that great a story and aside from the impact of the initial comic, has never produced a valuable piece of art? I have read the graphic novel, and it's alright? It's dated, very '90s, and has a lot of characters in it that the casual fan won't know, but is reasonably compelling anyway, with a few brilliant moments. Part of the problem is that Doomsday is just kind of a nothing villain, he's big and strong, but that's about it; he doesn't speak, has no real history and is only a threat due to his power, it's just kind of dull. So, can Bruce Timm and company do better with the story? A little? The Superman the Animated Series team naturally produce a quality product, but the story is still reasonably uninteresting to begin with, so never really gains new heights. Bigger budget means that the characters have some slicker design, but a change of voice actors drifts the film a little far away from the series. 

As Superman is dead for a reasonable portion of the film, much of the action follows Lois Lane and her search for answers. This is also where the small cast hurts the narrative, as Lois only really has Jimmy Olsen to talk to and the pair track down Luthor and resolve the mystery in all of ten minutes of screen time. That's the problem I have with most of the adaptations of The Death of Superman, they cut out the extended DC universe and the broader stories that can be told with it. One of my favourite parts of the comic is when Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) steps in to hold up Doomsday for as long as he can so that people can escape, despite the fact he has no powers and Doomsday has already torn through several heroes. In an expanded setting without characters like Ted Kord and Guy Gardner, there is no one other than Superman and Lois who can drive the story. In the animated features, I'm baffled that at least Flash, or maybe Batman couldn't show up to help out for a little bit. 

Superman Doomsday is an ok film, which suffers more from the material from which it is adapted than any mistakes or missteps with the production itself. I don't honestly think that Doomsday can be made interesting, or that keeping Superman dead for less than a year between films will carry any narrative weight. I'm yet to see The Death of Superman (2018), but Superman Doomsday is definitely a better watch than Batman V Superman, if you absolutely have to watch any of them, I naturally lean towards the Bruce Timm version. Personally, I'd prefer it if DC and WB stopped trying to make this story in film form, just let it rest for a while, at least until there is a Superman that resonates with the public strongly enough that people will actually care when he dies. Also, don't spoil Doomsday or that the film is about Superman's death in the trailer, seriously, that was dumb.

The AvengerZ - Part III

Can you tell I'm having fun with these? The first one was to stall side-talk in my roleplaying group, but I enjoy focusing on characters, analysing them and thinking about where they could be used in other roles. One of the reasons I started my Ultimate Alliance project, and am less keen on games like Batman Miniatures Game than many, is I wanted to see characters from diverse franchises interact on the tabletop; where would Superman sit during a superhero Civil War? Would Nekron side with the Annihilation Wave, and would Thanos try to usurp him? Do Nick Fury and Amanda Waller have a detente going on, or are they constantly fighting a Secret War with LMDs and Suicide Squads? 

The Dragon Ball franchise has hundreds of characters, with dozens of memorable villains, who, unlike many comics, tend to get killed off and rarely return. I don't really count Vegeta, Piccolo or Tien as 'recurring villains', because they joined the core cast pretty quick, so only really Frieza and the Red Ribbon forces have more than one outing as the antagonist[s], and even then, the Red Ribbon stuff can be pretty tenuous at times. I feel that many of the characters could do more with a little more time to develop, just look at Android 17 in Dragon Ball Super or the huge range of stuff in Dragon Ball Mulitiverse, even someone as two-dimensional as Captain Ginyu can get new life in a new writer's hands. This is part of the strength of the continual recurrence of villains in comics, even third-stringers like Shocker, Mad Hatter and Diablo can get a great run with the right team behind them. So here's my take on some Dragonball villains.

Mercenary Tao

I'll admit that this one is something of a cop-out, as Mercenary Tao is in a lot of Dragon Ball and DBZ, but god he's so much fun. Clearly inspired by interchangeable villains from countless Shaw Brothers films, Tao is an assassin for hire who is willing to cheat to win and never met someone he couldn't kill until he came across a child called Goku. I absolutely love the combination of 'killing blow' martial arts and hand grenades, not to mention traveling by throwing a tree and jumping on it to ride. In a more Marvel/DC setting, a character like Tao would be great to not only menace other martial artists like Iron Fist, but would be right at home stalking Spider-Man and Batman, looking to make his name as a gun-for-hire in the Kraven mold. Plus later, he becomes a cyborg! What's not to love?


Doctor Lychee

Don't at me DB fans, Lychee is an awesome concept even if Plan to Eradicate the Sayians is pretty lackluster. A combination technology and magic user, Lychee can summon the ghosts of deceased foes to battle, which plays like a clip show in the film, but in Dragon Ball Multiverse, he's easily one of the best re-imagined characters. Being driven by revenge, Lychee can make stupid mistakes despite his vast intelligence, and only has so much knowledge to hand, so is pretty unpredictable at the best of times. In a broader comic-style universe, Lychee seems like he'd be a mash-up of Baron Mordo and Nekron, bringing dead villains (or even heroes) back to life under his thrall in an attempt to defeat his foes, but tends to fail because he overreaches and summons someone like Onslaught, where it all goes to hell. If Jasco ever gets it's DBZ minis game together, Lychee is near the top of my list.

King Cold

The DBZ fandom has long been obsessed with just how powerful King Cold may have actually been. The English dub implied that he was as powerful as cyborg Frieza, but visually, he seems to be in his first form, maybe second, so how much more powerful would he have been transformed? Now, it's clear from the writing of the Trunks Saga that King Cold was never intended to do much other than be killed out of hand to shock the audience, but the what ifs are always fun to think about. Whilst thinking that Cold is incredibly powerful makes a certain amount of sense, personally I lean towards the idea that each successive generation of the Cold clan gets more powerful. Where I think the Cold army would be most interesting would be as an evil empire for the heroes to fight. We know that the rank-and-file soldiers are pretty weak, many not even really being fighters, but as you move up the ranks, power increases and so does the danger. That's a pretty solid framework for a campaign, even for non DB-style characters like Green Lanterns or Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

Janemba 

So this is what an Elder God looks like in the DBZ universe... I'll get to my big opinions about Rebirth of Fusion down the track, but for now, the rampaging fury of Janemba is just the kind of underworld denizen that a good superhero story needs. I can easily imagine Blackheart freeing Janemba to battle Ghost Rider, who needs to enlist Etrigan to learn how to entrap the monster once again. With a bevy of powers like teleportation, regeneration and summoning weapons from nowhere, Janemba doesn't have a deep personality, but the fight is interesting and he has a cool look.

Doctor Wheelo 

Big nerd confession, back when I wrote Dragon Ball fan fiction, the main, recurring villain was Doctor Wheelo; I saw The World's Strongest pretty early in the first wave of Dragon Ball Z to hit Australia, and it made an impression. The design of Wheelo's robot body, the brain-in-a-jar trope and the insane plan of transplanting his mind into Goku's body made for a compelling villain, plus his minions are genetically-engineered mutants with cyborg upgrades, what's not to love? Wheelo menaced my OCs for a while before returning one last time in an even newer robot body, forcing the lead Sayian to ascend to Super Sayian two and blah, blah, I didn't write much worthwhile in my teens and no you can't find it online anywhere. Anyway, mad scientist with a robot body who wants to steal the bodies of superheroes, sounds like a great antagonist, get on it Jasco.

Superhero Media: Ghost Rider

I like it. No, really. I actually kind of like Ghost Rider, Nic Cage and all. First, can we get over this Nic Cage thing? Dude is actually a good actor, just check out Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona or Snake Eyes, and he doesn't do a terrible job in Ghost Rider either, despite what the internet says. There are problems with the film, to be certain, but I don't think the casting, aside from Blackheart and his cronies, is really a major issue. Cage is playing Johnny Blaze, in this version of the story, a carny who has no real formal education and lucked into a lucrative career; of course he eats candy out of crystal and has ludicrous taste in clothing, he grew up in a circus with no money. Also, the whole, "he's uneducated" part of the Blaze character plays nicely into when he literally makes a deal with the devil. I will admit some annoyance that Blackheart gets to keep his name, but Mephisto doesn't, but Peter Fonda playing the embodiment of evil is a good get, and he has fun with the role. Eva Mendes shines when the script allows her to, the scene where she's stood-up by Blaze is a classic, with her drinking an entire bottle of wine then demanding a waiter tell her she's pretty. 

Rebel Wilson has a cameo, as a goth girl menaced my a mugger and saved by Ghost Rider, which is a bit of fun, as this was quite a while before Pitch Perfect. Much of the film was shot in Melbourne, Australia, which a friend of mine used to make fun of quite a bit, but excepting Southbank and the Citilink, the places they use are pretty generic, like Melbourne Cemetery, so it bothers me less than some of the locations in I, Frankenstein. The little thing in Ghost Rider that grates on me is the CGI motorcycle. A lot of people point out that the CGI in general is pretty poor, but that doesn't bother me as much as a real stuntman with a CGI head on a CGI bike. I don't watch much reality television, but I was under the impression that Motorcycle custom shops are reasonably common, surely production could have thrown some money at someone for a skulls and chains rebuild of a Harley or something? And while we're on the design department being lazy, why do the demons all look like background extras from Underworld? Yes, demons don't really have a contiguous look in Marvel Comics, but something a bit more grounded or horror inspired would have been better, the leather coats and piercings just stand out from the surrounds in all the wrong ways. 

On the internet, especially YouTube, Ghost Rider is a bit of a punching bag for popular critics, which I feel is undeserved. Yes, it's not a great film, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as Catwoman or Super Buddies; Ghost Rider is more of a camp romp with a few bad decisions dragging it down than an absolute train-wreck. Ghost Rider is a difficult character to get to grips with, not having every really had a great run in comics and being tied into some real comics obscura. I think this film does a reasonable job without trying to be as over the top as Spawn or Faust - Love of the Damned, and is probably worth another look if you've only seen it the once. I'm hoping to see a version of the Blaze (or maybe Kale) Ghost Rider in the MCU at some point, given that I don't really count Agents of SHIELD as part of the continuity anymore. Doctor Strange has introduced alternate planes and demonic forces, so Ghost Rider turning up as a foil is a possibility as well as a good way to backdoor the character in and test the market. Hell, after that one scene in Avengers Endgame, it looks like a Fearless Defenders film may be on the cards, who knows what the future holds?

EDF V

Turns out I really enjoy painting little tanks, which is probably good, as I have quite a lot of them still left to do. 

Soviet Tank-Hunters, I can't specifically remember which makes, but most miniatures games handle them pretty similarly. 

Slower than regular tanks, but with far more firepower, Tank-Hunters pack a powerful punch. 

 These Heroclix Mousers give an idea of scale, but also work as giant killer robots for Kaiju, win-win!