Melee of Champions - Part II

Despite not having an event to run my Melee of Champions games at for a few months yet, I'm still picking up figures when I see them going cheap.

Luigi and Mario Amiibos I picked up because I'm working on a little "Introductory Scenario" in which the brothers Mario take on Bowser.

Lara Croft figure and Samus Amiibo add some female power to the proceedings. I would have preferred a 'chunkier' Samus, this version makes her seem emaciated under that armour.

Obi Wan and Anakin Disney Infinity figures. I know a few people are trying out Super Mission Force for Star Wars Games, but the lack of antagonists in the range may limit this idea.

Han Solo, Davy Jones and Poe, all Disney Infinity. Han and Poe work better in Super Mission Force, with some basic Wildcard stats, but, again, a lack of cheaply available Stormtroopers means they may get moved on. 

Superhero Media: Men In Black

So technically, Men In Black is a Marvel comics film, as it draws inspiration from comics published by Malibu Comics, which Marvel bought out in the '90s. Does that mean Kay is the son of Colonel Chester Phillips? Probably not, as the MIB stuff has never been part of the 616 continuity. Anyway, Men In Black is something of a '90s classic, generally considered a great action comedy and has a brilliant cast. In fact, the film is so well loved that I feel silly just piling onto that, go check out Patrik H Willhiems YouTube video about the film if you want to see all of the great work in Men In Black. Naturally, I'm more interested in what a MIB style organisation would be like in a more "conventional" superhero setting. It's really not all that far-fetched, Marvel has SWORD and DC have something I can't recall right now, but how does this clash with the common knowledge that aliens walk around the world in the form of Superman, Invincible and Goku? True, a costumed alien battling robots and rescuing cats from trees is a far cry from abductions and tripods, but who gets to decide what is a good alien and what makes a bad one? 

In Men In Black good and bad comes down to treaties and registration, much like with immigration into most modern countries, which is of course the joke, as the opening sequence of the film makes clear. Well Superman is an illegal alien (in more than one sense), but I'm assuming he gets away with it because of all the help he provides, see also Invincible. Mind you, the MIB seem to keep better track of aliens on the planet than SWORD does, and can I just say that Rip Torn is amazing and was a great loss to us all. Torn plays a great mashup of 007's M and Nick Fury, who comes across as a gruff boss and tough taskmaster, but works in an irreverence and comedy to the role that gets overlooked. Although the giant cockroach in the finale isn't all that interesting, Edgar is a delight through the lens of Vincent D'Onofrio's performance; a Skrull Infiltrator, he isn't, but is weird enough to fly under the radar in New York City. The staggering, stammering and drooling creature in a rotting human shell is far more convincing than the farting green things in Doctor Who. 

I can't honestly say that I'm as sold on Men In Black as some are, but I enjoyed it well enough this time through. I like the concept of alien-hunting agents, but, me being me, already have a SuperSystem team to deal with aliens that is more Super Sentai inspired. However, it's such a cool concept that it may crop up somewhere for me down the track, maybe in a different game and setting though. There are plenty of miniatures in suits, and even a few Men In Black around if that's what you want to do, plus tonnes of aliens to run around catching.

Wave IV

I didn't really have much of a plan for my Kaiju and Micro Armour terrain, then I had the good luck to come across an incomplete Monopoly set and a couple of other "junked" board games, which gave me an idea. The following terrain pieces are nothing more than some houses, hotels and "submarines" mounted on some PAX Aus badges I had from previous years.

The bases are meant to represent Soviet Collective Farms, to tie in with the Soviet army. 

 

The Soviet infantry and rocket truck give an idea of scale. 

 

What's this? Some kind of alien attack? 

 

Some based and touched-up "Kaiju Spawn". 

 

Play-Arts Legion from the Gamera franchise with several warriors. A Boxing Day sales purchase from Hobby Link Japan. 

 

Poseable, die cast and plastic mix, Legion is one of the biggest Kaiju I have, and a hell of a model. 

 

 

This shot with the truck demonstrates just how big Legion is. 

Superhero Media: The Losers

You want deep cuts? We got deep cuts. The Losers is a film adaptation of a DC Vertigo comic of the same name which is, in turn, based on a Silver Age DC comic of the same name. Even given my wide reading of comics, the only familiarity I have with The Losers is in the prelude of Justice League: New Frontier, where the entire team is killed by dinosaurs. Man, I love comics. The Vertigo update, and, by extension, the film, follows the fortunes of a crack black-ops team, framed for a crime they didn't commit and trying to clear their names. If this sounds like The A-Team, I have another deep cut for you. The Losers came out in the same twelve-month period as The A-Team and The Expendables, all films about groups of gruff men on dangerous missions working outside of a traditional command structure. Oddly, I find The Losers to be the best of the three, but is also the least well known. 

There's not much to The Losers outside of a good cast and some solid action, with Jason Patric, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans and Idris Elba are the big names, but most of the casting is solid. Watching The Losers now is a bit of a trip, as it came out the year before Captain America: The First Avenger, and Chris Evans seems like the last actor anyone would cast to play Cap. The scene where his character, Jensen, has to infiltrate an office building may be the only use of Journey outside of The Sopranos that I can actually stand. The story is pretty bog-standard, with the titular Losers hunting a rogue CIA agent, played by Jason Patric, who last appeared on Lead Capes as Michael in The Lost Boys. Michael is trying to start a major war with sonic doomsday weapons made by South Asian stereotypes and escape with a pile of CIA cash at the same time. 

I like when comics dip into the Spy-Fi pool, especially when, like Nick Fury, they fit alongside superheroes at the same time, but even I found The Losers not worth much more than a casual viewing. Now, if Warner Bros got the gumption together to hire Evans and co now, and have them meet with Shazam and Wonder Woman, maybe even form Checkmate or one of the DC Spy groups. I mean, that's probably never going to happen, but it would be at least worth a reference or a cameo. Certainly more one for the action junkies than the superhero enthusiast, The Losers is still an entertaining watch and I'm shocked just how few people have seen or even heard of it. At the very least, it's good for conversations at parties, along the lines of "before he was Captain America, Chris Evans played a black-ops team member who does bad karaoke and talks about butt stuff". You can't buy that kind of trivia.

Terrain Finished: Road Signs

Mighty Ape, an Australian online retailer that stocks a fair bit of gaming stuff, was having a "Boxing Day Sale" and I grabbed a few things for my Kill Team table. I also saw these Multiverse Traffic Light/Road signs set, which I snapped up, thinking that they were finally a solution to my 28mm Traffic light problem. More fool me. Turned out that they're made for 10mm miniatures, specifically Dropzone Commander, which I have been long interested in trying, but never had the opportunity. Not a major setback, I assembled them anyway, they'll do nicely for Kaiju. 

I wasn't happy with the traffic lights, so I used the road signs, even if they're a bit too "Sci-Fi" for my needs. 

Micro Armour T-34 for an idea of scale, I had to add the Rendara bases for stability. 

With no painted Kaiju to hand as of yet, I pulled out my Frost Giant to see how they look next to something "big". 

 The Frost Giant makes a pretty good Kaiju on his own, may have to introduce him when I get around to it. 

Superhero Media: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Oh boy is there a lot to talk about with Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE), and some of it doesn't really relate to the progamme all that directly. I'm somewhat glad that I don't get all that many readers here, as it means I don't get too many trolls in the comments when I say something that goes against conventional fan wisdom. There was one time for one of my Dragonball Z articles where I was harsh on Vegeta, but I deleted it pretty quick. You see, I was there. I was the right age and the right amount of nerdy to be super into Anime when it hit big in the West for the first time. Sure, we'd had stuff like Samurai Pizza Cats and Sailor Moon, but the triple-punch of Dragonball Z, Pokemon and NGE changed nerd culture almost overnight. And yes, I thought NGE was deep, and complex and adult, because I was barely a teenager and a little bit of boob and blood was enough to win me over. Now that I'm more than twice as old as I was then, have a film degree sitting in the corner of my study and philosophy books on my shelves and NGE is a hell of a lot less impressive. 

Now, that's not to say that NGE isn't "good", it is, it really tries to elevate the Giant Mecha subgenre and gets there for the most part, but it isn't the transcendent masterpiece of postmodernist psychology that some would have you believe it is. Firstly, the Christian symbolism is essentially set-dressing and Hideaki Anno wasn't really making any major criticisms of the faith, Bible or Western culture in general, at least no more so than Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were being critical of Norse myth in The Mighty Thor. That said, the idea of alien Kiaju being angels sent from God to punish humanity and kick-start the apocalypse whilst looking and acting how they look and act in NGE is one worth exploring and thinking about even if it isn't really intended to be there in the first place. Personally, I also doubt that the cloning plot is intended to provide any commentary, especially as there's really no comeuppance for Gendo once Misato and Shinji find out what Rei really is and where she comes from. 

A word that comes up often in discussing NGE is "unique", which fits, not only in terms of the overall presentation, but also in design. There are no mecha that really look like the Evangelion, even those trying to be derivative of them; there is something in the way they move that is shockingly human and utterly animal at the same time. The episode in which Unit 1 eats part of an Angel manages to be genuinely creepy, even if it only turns out to have happened because Shinji's mother's soul is in the Eva and Gendo planned all of this to happen. It gets explained better in the films, but the secret behind the Evangelions, other than their being human/angel hybrid clones, is that the functional units are inhabited by the souls of dead mothers. Does this mean there is a great metaphor of motherhood or maternal relations to be had? Not really. The greater themes of the piece are social isolation and developing empathy, the mother thing is like the Christianity thing, interesting, but not overly relevant. 

Shinji is thirteen at the start of the story, having not seen his father since the untimely death of his mother, a decade earlier. Shinji has lived mostly alone for his entire life and relates to other people by being as deferential as possible, never wanting to make waves or any real connections. As Nerv and humanity struggle against the external horror of the Angels, Shinji struggles to overcome himself and form a meaningful connection with the people around him; this is why I actually really enjoy the last two episodes, as they serve as visual representation of Shinji's internal battle against his own depression and anxiety. If you decide to start watching NGE as inspiration for Mecha vs Kaiju games, you'll likely be disappointed with what you get, however, if you're willing to give the quiet sections a chance and to look for the metaphorical meaning in scenes, there is a lot there to enjoy. I'd personally advise against getting too into the online community for the programme, as it can be a bit "out there". Also be warned that NGE features quite a bit of nudity of characters presented as being underage and also several instances of sexual assault. As I said, I like it, but I have some issues there.

Miniatures Finished: Anachronaut Squad 2

This one took a while longer than expected, though more to trying to finds suitable miniatures than getting the painting done. I'll admit that some of the historics are a bit daunting, especially the Napoleonic era, but trying out something else every now and then helps flex my skills a little. As a project, I'd love to do a bit more on this, but hunting for individual plastic miniatures can be a little tough. 

The second team of Anachronauts is ready for action! Suitable minions for Kang, Immortus, Chronus or even a Doctor Who "The War Games" scenario. 

Samurai, Gaul Warrior, Union Scout, Imperial Guard Sergeant and Mercenary Billman. 

 Cobra Viper, English Civil War Handgunner, Republican Roman Legion, Medieval Archer and Pirate. 

With the Viper and the Guardsman, I was mostly using some old miniatures and kind of pushing the "Greatest Soldiers from Human History" element out a bit. After all, in Avengers Forever there are Sci-Fi Anachronauts, so why not an Imperial Guardsman from the year 40,000, or a Stormtrooper from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (see Squad 1). Eventually I'd like to so an 'elite' squad of Anachronauts, with characters like Beowulf, Guan Yu and Jack Churchill, but miniatures are, again, the sticking point. Maybe a cavalry unit? Maybe a T-34, Sopwith Camel or Bradley? Maybe I should just bite the bullet and start using metal miniatures? Only time will tell. (pun intended) 

Superhero Media: Hulk

It's becoming the done thing among internet film critics to praise Ang Lee's Hulk as an underappreciated classic, so please forgive me for not bucking the trend. I distinctly remember seeing this film in the theatre with my father and step-brother when it came out, the audience got a real thrill out of it right up to the finale, so I was shocked when most people I spoke to regarded the film in a negative light. I'll agree that Hulk versus an odd take on Absorbing Man, but also Bruce's dad, was a bit of a let-down as an ending, but I never let it ruin my enjoyment of the rest of the film. As popular a character as Hulk has always been, his comics are not widely read, and the content often confuses people that come to them, looking for something close to the film and television representations. For much of the Silver Age, the Hulk fought other monsters and traveled to far off lands, having adventures. It really wasn't until the 1990s that "Hulk Vs the Army" became a recurrent theme for the comics. At the same time however, Hulk comics got really introspective. 

Flipping open some 2000s Hulk can be a real trip, with old Jade Jaws throwing around helicopters for a couple of pages before Bruce contemplates his navel for the rest of the book. This kind of comic was everywhere at the time and is exactly what Ang Lee's Hulk reminds me of when I watch it. As one would expect with Ang Lee's pedigree as a director, the action scenes in Hulk are impressive, even accounting for the age of the CGI, but going back to it after a Film degree, I found I got a lot out of the interesting transitions and cross-cutting. Hulk is certainly artsy, but I don't feel that's necessarily a mark against it, rather it's an interesting addition to what could have been a straightforward action romp. Other superhero films, like Sin City and Thor Ragnarok have gone for more diverse styles and come up trumps, even Brightburn and New Mutants look to different genres for influence, why not do it with the Hulk? 

And can I just talk about how damn good the cast is in this film? Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, and probably the only film where anyone walked away saying "gee, Nick Nolte gave a compelling and subtle performance". Even the facial capture on Hulk is excellent, you can tell, at any moment, what Jade Jaws is feeling, even when it's something like ambivalence or ennui.  Marvel Studios didn't even get that down until Thor Ragnarok. If you've never seen Hulk because of what you heard about it, give it a go, the film can be found on Netflix and it's at least an interesting watch and, as always, I encourage you to form your own opinions. The action is solid, the cast is great and the cinematography is a joy to watch, even in the slower sections. Now that the MCU is such a cultural juggernaut, these older Marvel entries are being forgotten, but there are some that are worth remembering and going back to now and then.

Miniatures Finished: Vampire Soldiers

Having needed some henchmen for the MI-13 Campaign, I picked up some of these Malifaux "Witchling Stalkers", which where about the closest match for the Vampires in sun-proof suits from Captain Britain and MI-13 I could find in miniature.

I also took another pass at some crates I had to make them a bit more worn and dirty. 
 

The Vampire soldiers are the baseline henchmen of Dracula's forces, being tough for henchmen, but still weaker than an average hero. 

Name: Vampire Soldiers				BP: 85
Affiliation: Dracula				AP: 6
Strike: 5	Strength: 5	Dodge: 5	Sense: 6 (1)
Toughness: 6 (1)	Mind: 2	Resolve: 2	Damage: 6/6
Powers
Drain 3 (Limited) - 2AP after a successful Strike Attack, reduce opponent’s physical characteristics up to 3
Density Decrease – 3AP, Immune to Damage rolled against Toughness, Cannot make melee attacks, may move through terrain, immune to fall damage, Cannot be Knocked Down
Combat Reflexes – May break from Combat with an Opposed Dodge Test and Charge again
Super-Toughness 1, Super Sense 1
Henchmen Team – 6 Members