Superhero Media: Tron Evolution

Well this particular piece of Tron media took me a while, but that's only because Tron Evolution is a terrible game and I kept putting it down in disgust. I know I don't normally review gameplay and design when I look at Video Games here, focusing instead upon narrative and character, but Tron Evolution was so clunky and poor to play that it really was my main take away from my experience. Set on what I can best describe as the Tron version of "The Night of the Long Knives", when Clu makes a grab for power, starts slaughtering the Isos and attempts to kill Flynn. Now, as far as stories for a Tron video game go, that's a pretty solid pitch, add to that the presence of Olivia Wilde and Bruce Boxleitner in voice roles and the game had real potential to be something great. But there is just this cascade of poor choices discernible behind Tron Evolution that sucks any joy out of the finished product. For starters, the protagonist is 'The Monitor', a security program with no dialogue and no personality.

Why aren't I playing as Tron? Seriously, you have Boxleitner in the recording booth and I'm fighting Clu for most of the game, why isn't Tron the protagonist? It really wouldn't have been more than a narrative and dialogue change, so why am I 'The Monitor', who, spoiler alert for a PS3 game, dies at the end of the game, when Clu being captured and turned into Rinzler would have had more impact? Secondly, clearly a great deal of effort has gone into depicting the landscapes and buildings of the Grid, but you never really get to explore it, instead using parkour to get from one fight to the next and only really seeing anything interesting in background. Sections where you get to drive a Lightcycle or Light Tank are interesting, but the controls are wonky and the sections are, again, very linear. Hell, there's not even a light-cycle battle at any stage, which is just a waste of the setting and history of the franchise. Seeing the events that lead to Tron Legacy played out is great, but without any real engagement with the setting, it doesn't feel grounded and any impact is lost.

I know Tron is a weird franchise to want more and better versions of, but as we've discussed here previously, I think there's a great deal to be found within what's there. Tron is antifascist, it's anti-corporate, it's Dionysian and it's radical in a way few family films, especially those made by Disney, tend to be. The narrative is heroic, though in terms of talent, not destiny, with Flynn's intellect and skills at video games being what enables him to defeat Master Control. It's odd that one of the best film series about video games doesn't have a whole series of video game tie-ins, as it's an immediate excuse to get around ludonarrative dissonance, has an iconic look and a banging soundtrack by Daft Punk. Oh yeah, Tron Evolution doesn't use the Daft Punk music, but some odd sound-alike version which is pretty terrible, again, what an odd choice given what was available. Hopefully there is more for Tron, Clu and Flynn in the future, hopefully better than this and hopefully not too far away.

Superhero Media: Kolchak - The Night Stalker

Oh hell yeah! I was randomly flicking through SBS On Demand one afternoon when I found that the entirety of Kolchak The Night Stalker was available to watch. I was house-sitting at the time, with a couple of older dogs, so something fun to binge whilst the elder napped on my lap was a good way to fill the afternoons. Although Kolchak is a classic cult series for a number of good reasons, I do have to warn that as it was made in the 1970s, there is plenty of sexist and homophobic material in the programme just as a matter of course; it didn't stop me from enjoying it, but I can see it being more offensive to others. Carl Kolchak is a reporter for the Independent News Service in Chicago, who has the rotten luck to keep encountering the supernatural and sublime while he's chasing stories. Despite having exactly the kind of budget you'd expect for a niche broadcast television production of the era and dealing with flying saucers, vampires and underground lizard people, Kolchak is somehow one of the most grounded and sober series about the supernatural I've ever seen.

For those seeking a superhero connection for all of this, Kolchak isn't all that far removed in concept from comic characters like Doctor 13 or even Constantine, or if we're prepared to go wide, I can see shades of Carl Kolchak in Spider Jerusalem. I think what makes Kolchak so enduring and engaging even now is how smart it manages to be at times, such as in an episode where an alien is killing people, the alien is invisible to human eyes, so all interactions are filmed with clever staging and light-play to create the impression that something is lingering just out of sight. It honestly works great, much better than a rubber suit would ever have. Of course, there are plenty of rubber suits and dodgy masks, but some great direction and interesting locations make the finished product greater than the sum of its parts. As a fan of classic Doctor Who, I have a high tolerance for cheap pre-CGI effects, but things like the Magma Dragon in The Caves of Androzani still really disappoint, so I was pleasantly surprised as how restrained Kolchak allowed itself to be.

For most of your games, Kolchak probably won't be providing a great deal of inspiration, but I do recommend watching it for just the sheer joy and interest of the series. Although comparisons can be readily made to later programmes like Supernatural, The X Files and Project Blue Book, the wry humor and 1970s cynicism make Kolchak a pretty unique entity in the history of television. Yes, it's dated and there are a few "yikes" moments to the modern sensibility, but the quality is solid and the acting is perfectly on-tone for what's being presented. Also, there's a few guest spots by actors famous for M*A*S*H, which is pretty cool. Naturally I'm now considering a Kolchak-style character in my vampire skirmish game, but who knows when I'll be able to get that off the ground in any serious way, so don't bother expecting any of that happening in the near future. Seriously, this is a great series and well worth your time to track down and watch.

Superhero Media: The Subjects

A random DVD I picked up in one of my scavenging, runs through the store for new content, The Subjects bills itself as a "Superhero Horror Movie", but really is barely that. Made cheaply with a collection of Australian actors doing awkward American accents stuck inside a music studio I'm 80% sure I was in once, The Subjects isn't much really, but there are some good ideas to be had. For starters, any fan of Sean Micallef should really check this film out for the handful of scenes featuring Tosh Greenslade; no, really. The idea is that a group of people have volunteered for a drug trial, only the drug gives super-powers, until it kills you, that is. Now, this is an interesting premise, but the lack of budget really kills the concept before it can get off the ground. At barely 90 minutes, I don't get to know any of the characters enough to care about them when they die, which is a real failure for any horror film.

Again, there are clever ideas to be had in The Subjects, the whole drug trial concept would work pretty well with Cadmus, Lexcorp or Alchemex pulling the strings, almost reminding me of Rise of the Imperfects in a funny way. One of the characters, whose name I don't remember, is essentially a take on Molecule Man, though I don't think that's deliberate, but after seeing The Subjects, I get an idea of what an MCU Molecule Man could look like and be pretty interesting. Aside from that, the only interesting power that pops up is a character who can control air, including the air inside people's lungs. I can see that kind of killer, and of course the character is a killer in The Subjects, being an interesting antagonist for, say, Daredevil, The Question or even Elongated Man in the right setting. Like an evil Wind Dancer, for those who tune in for my deepest cuts?

Oh, Vampire the Masquerade players may also want to check this out for a great representation of the Obfuscation power "Vanish from the Mind's Eye" and a fun way clever players may be able to get around it. Especially any True Brujha that your ST was silly enough to let you play. So should you bother with The Subjects? Well, if you like cheap horror, sure. Maybe not so much if you're a superhero fan though, as there isn't much there there in that regard. If you were looking for an interesting way to start a "grounded" supers campaign perhaps, but honestly, you could just watch the trailer and save yourself quite a bit of time to get the gist of the idea. If Marvel Studios or even HBO or Netflix took another swing at this idea with a series and more of a narrative, I'd probably be keen, but I doubt I'll bother to watch this again anytime soon.

Superhero Media: Birdman

I first watched Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) a few years ago with the intent of reviewing it here, but I found I didn't have much to say, so let it slip by. Sometimes this happens with some of the media I view for the purposes of "Superhero Media" articles; I just end up with nothing much to say so I don't bother. However, after thinking on it and giving Birdman another go, I do have a few things I can talk about. First of all, Birdman is a very well made film with an excellent cast, and it's a joy to watch, so I do recommend it if you're into American independent film or want to give it a go. That said, Birdman has one fatal flaw that really undermines the entire film, essentially rendering the entire point, or one of them at least, meaningless and really robbing it of any residual impact. A big part of Birdman, which flows through the narrative, is the idea that traditional Broadway and theatre in general, is being overrun by Hollywood figures trying to use the legacy of the boards to create a false legitimacy for themselves. You know what? Completely agree. I think it fails to address the whole Andrew Lloyd Weber being simultaneously ubiquitous and shit thing, but a good start.

No, the idea espoused by Birdman is that Superhero cinema is destroying Hollywood the same way Hollywood is destroying Broadway. Ok, so there's a bit to unpack there. Although particular aim is taken at the MCU (Jeremy Renner is singled out because he's also won Oscars?) it's pretty difficult to get away from Keaton's own legacy as Batman; shifted from subtext to text by the "Birdman" framing device. Keaton was an accomplished actor before Batman, though known mostly for comedy, but his career floundered after Batman Returns, only recovering in recent years. This, oddly, was a pretty standard occurrence in the pre-MCU days, with Val Kilmer, Chris O'Donnell and even Famke Janssen kind of dropping off the radar for years after being in middling Superhero efforts. But the whole targeting the MCU thing? Aside from Edward Norton having been in an MCU film (and Keaton would be in the near future), one thing Marvel Studios has always done well is platform creators and talent. Look at Renner, I've seen his two award-winning turns, but how many people have seen The Hurt Locker and The Town compared to anything where he appears as Hawkeye?

I really don't even feel like tackling the whole "are these films valid?" question, as it really feels like a misdirect, and anyone who's still saying that Black Panther, Superman The Movie and The Incredibles have nothing valid to say as films must either be misinformed or outright dishonest. I can see that if one where a struggling filmmaker or actor, the success of the, admitted rather homogeneous, MCU series could well look like corporate moneymaking killing your "art", but as a frustrated novelist myself, I have to live with the knowledge that whatever I publish will end up read by fewer people than whatever Tom Clancy shat out over the weekend. That's the sacrifice talent makes to mediocrity, and it was felt at least as far back as the playwrights of Athens. For all the brilliance and moments of cleverness to be had in Birdman, and there are many, it gets undercut by the sheer pettiness of the premise and how it plays out. Superhero cinema isn't the bad guy, or the end of the industry or whatever panic is happening in the film press this week. Superhero stories are just as valid as any other genre, even if you don't like them yourself.

Thinking Out Loud: Light Claws

I was watching Violent Night, which I probably won't review here because it kind of barely scrapes the edge of relevance, even by my broad standards for "Superhero Media", and a thought occurred. Is Father Christmas a reasonable idea for a super hero? There's a few times that this idea has been explored, from a terrible episode of Doctor Who, one of The Venture Bros. Christmas specials and, my personal favourite, "Maul Santa" from webcomic Edison Rex. It makes sense in an odd way, as the modern version of Father Christmas is a Capitalist rebranding of Odin by way of Christian Terrorist St Nicholas. Odin himself appears in a lot of comics and superhero settings, so it's not a stretch by any means, though the comparative mythology is a little more complex between Odin and Father Christmas that a quick Google would indicate. Add to that the past 100+ years of popular culture and the very Americanised "Santa Claus" and perhaps that jolly old elf isn't terribly suited for the cape and tights sets after all.

Before we go too much further on, Edison Rex is a fun read if you've never bothered, but the character that embedded itself best in my memory is certainly Maul Santa, essentially a Christmas-themed Green Goblin riff, complete a holly wreath hoverboard and bauble bombs. I love this idea and have been searching for the perfect miniature for a couple of years now. If you have a lead, please let me know in the comments. Anywho, most interpretations of the character demonstrate some level of power[s] that could be called superhuman, or at least super, to some degree. Notably even St Nicholas, being a Saint and all, could do some fun stuff, when he wasn't beating the living shit out of people for failing to convert. In a superhero setting, where gods, science gone wrong and mythology live side-by-side, some version of Father Christmas isn't too far-fetched in the grand scheme of things.

Should a character like this be a hero, though? It kind of worked in Legend of the Guardians, if you remember that, and Violent Night works with the Father Christmas character having some minor powers but mostly just being an immortal Viking with some hammer skills. For my own time and money, I doubt I'll be exploring this idea beyond making a Maul Santa at some stage, as it's a little too twee for me and I don't celebrate Christmas at all. However, if someone ran with this concept, and did a decent job of it, I could see myself enjoying it, or at least appreciating the effort. Hell, my Equalisers setting has an entire super team based on a sing Beastie Boys music video, complete with miniatures and stats for SuperSystem, so who am I to judge? If Father Christmas is destined to grace a gaming table near me, I won't be too bothered, not matter if they're wielding bauble bombs, magic powers or just a big, bloody hammer.

Superhero Media: Brightburn

Did you know that Brightburn is a backdoor sequel to Super? Because I didn't until I watched it and Michael Rooker turned up as an Alex Jones-esque talking head ranting about the coming of the superheroes. Anyway, if you know anything about Brightburn, it's probably that the film is a "dark" take on the Superman story, with an alien child growing up in the American farm belt and going rogue rather than becoming a hero. And whilst all that is true, what tends to get lost is just how good Brightburn is. As I've discussed before, "evil Superman" is a pretty tired riff, but the team behind this film didn't make the typical mistakes of being obvious or overly fetishistic with the concept, it really is just played straight most of the time, which works really well. Brightburn isn't about how "powerful" Brandon Briars is, or who he can kill in a fight, it's about the horror of ordinary people encountering a force of nature in the shape of an adolescent boy.

Years ago, I wrote an article on this blog entitled "The View From The Trenches", which is still one of my favourite pieces I've done (and barely anyone read, but whatever), and it focused on the idea that a human caught up in a superhero battle must be overwhelmed, if not terrified by the goings-on around them, and lamented how few sources dealt with this concept. Brightburn uses simple film techniques and surprisingly basic special effects to evoke a superhuman on a rampage pretty much better than anything else I've ever seen. In fact, the scenes of Brandon hunting people down are so good, I'd like to see versions of them with the blood and gore cut down to a PG level, because I think that may be even better. Watching the sheriff just vanish in a gust of wind the instant Brandon turns in his direction is phenomenal, and really needs to be repeated in something like the MCU or a Superman film, just without the resulting trail of gore. Not that I'm saying a superhero film can't be violent or bloody, just that it doesn't really need to be to tell the story well.

I'm not saying that I really "need" more of this cinematic universe in my life, but I certainly would be interested in seeing where it all goes if James Gunn and co do decide to do more. Although I feel the "dark heroes" thing is a more than a little overdone, there is room for it if done well, like some of the InJustice narrative, or even Nightstalkers, and the take that they may be newer style horror movie monsters is actually pretty neat. Despite his super powers, Brandon is essentially a "slasher" in the vein of Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, so throw in a creepy doll, Slenderman and maybe a sexy monstress and you have yourself a decent team right there without too much extra fussing about. Not that I'm looking to build such a team myself, I really have enough already, but if slasher horror is the kick you need to get going on superhero miniatures gaming, who am I to stop you from doing that?

Superhero Media: Glass

I hadn't heard much good about Glass, the finale of the Unbreakable/Split series, but I almost really enjoyed it myself. Almost. The issue I have with M. Knight Shaymalan's approach to cinema has always floated around my mind, but have never quite managed to articulate before now, is that he's trying too hard to be clever. In terms of construction, Glass is pretty solid, with all three "superpowered" characters (Overseer, The Beast and Mister Glass) bringing their supporting cast members with them and coming together in a fun crossover before it's all inverted and our protagonists end up in the clutches of Sarah Paulson's evil psychiatrist. When things turn out to have been manipulated by Mister Glass all along, well that's just nice work and brings everything back to the 'comics but dialed down just a little' feel of the best parts of Unbreakable and Split. Sadly, there's another layer of Shaymalan twist on top of all that which, yeah, kind of kills the emotion of the film and Glass just ends up playing a little flat. Real shame.

Again, I'm not super happy about the whole "evil yet somehow incredibly gullible" pysch trope, even if I've been a big fan of Paulson since Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, but given that Shaymalan seems to really hate mental health workers for some reason, I was willing to let that slide before the second-to-last reveal of Glass. You see, she's not just some Psych, but a member of an ancient secret society that has, somehow, kept the existence of superhumans secret since the dawn of time or some shit. Now, that's not ostensibly dumber than the Court of Owls or any similar in comics, but it really jars with the tone of the film, especially when the entire organisation is undermined by Mister Glass, from beyond the grave, in the closing minutes of the film. It's a baffling decision, and Glass would have honestly been just as interesting with a more 'traditional' superhero fight ending and dropping the whole Secret Society nonsense.

Oddly, I would say that Glass does demonstrate that Shaymalan is a talented filmmaker, as the script is solid, the cinematography is amazing and everything just looks great, except maybe the big throwdown at the end. Glass just needs a heavier edit and maybe it could be pretty damn great. For as much as I want superhero cinema to branch out of the MCU space, I would also really like those films to be, you know, good? As homogeneous as they can be (though I'd argue that), the MCU films have a degree of oversight that means stuff like a pointless secret society who exist only to pad out another fifteen minutes would never come to be. I'm not saying that Glass needed to be the start of an entirely new cinematic universe, but if the ending is going to be left so wide open, why not have Mister Glass, Overseer and The Beast, who are the reason butts are in the cinema in the first place, vanish into the aether of the credits to hang sinisterly in the minds of fans? Almost great, a shame the studio didn't have the guts to force it into shape.

Superhero Media: Super

"From the twisted mind of James Gunn"; man, do you remember when James Gunn was a Troma alum known for shock horror and penis monsters? I mean in terms of his film work, instead of being known for an infamous Twitter dogpile attack orchestrated by internet Nazis as a dry-run before they targeted the head of Lucasfilm, just in case you forgot that's why Gunn was taken off Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for a few months. Anyway, calling Super a deconstruction of the Superhero genre would be reasonably fair, but also misses quite a lot. I imagine that there are almost as many takes on Super as there are those who have really written about it, as it is the kind of film which allows interpretation of the themes and message, if there is really one there. Is Super and indictment of violence, white male rage and/or cinema culture? Perhaps. Is it a reaction to the proliferation of overly sanitised and homogenised superhero cinema in Hollywood? Probably not, but I could see someone making that argument. Or is Super a commentary on drugs, mental health and the failings of policing? Well, that's more in my lane, isn't it?

Frank Darbo is a put-upon everyman who has caught precisely one break in his life, meeting and falling in love with is wife, Sarah. Despite being unattractive, put upon and having a rubbish job, Frank isn't actually all that angry, as far as this kind of film goes, certainly not to the absurd levels of Joker or Taxi Driver, when Sarah falls into the sway of a local drug kingpin, his initial response is despair, not rage. Frank's drift towards being the Crimson Bolt is framed as being divinely inspired, quite literally, as a godlike being speaks to him and tells him that some are chosen. As I progress further in my career as a Psychotherapist, I'm finding more and more that depictions of mental health issues in media are getting to me. Frank clearly needs help and has never gotten it, same with Libby, aka Bolty, and whilst there are plenty of people with delusions who live happy lives, both Frank and Libby are led to shockingly extreme behaviour by their untreated issues. I have to admit, I almost stopped the film after watching Elliot Page having to act mounting and sexually assaulting Frank.

Thankfully, Super comes back around in the conclusion. After the expected, and somewhat cathartic, orgy of violence in the third act, where Frank rescues Sarah and has his hero moment, the tone changes and something really interesting happens. In a voiceover and montage, we see that Sarah leaves Frank, finds someone new and raises a happy family. Rather than be angry, Frank is accepting, seeing that Sarah is the chosen one, not him, and he learns to accept the good in his life for what it is. I'm not going to lie, if not for that last segment, my review of Super would be pretty harsh, as the film it pretty easy to read in the same alt-Right vein as Joker or the like. "If your wife leaves you for another man, shag a teenager and buy a lot of guns" is equivocally NOT the message of Super, in fact, it makes a strong point against violence. It's still a little "Liberal" for my radical tastes, but the idea of not doing harm because it harms people as the central ideology for a superhero certainly has potential. I don't know, my friend who loaned me his copy of Super certainly didn't get the same reads as I did from it, so maybe there's not all that much to it and all I'm seeing is my own reflection.

The Slizer Project - Part IV

When I stared on this, I thought it would probably take three articles of reasonable size, not what's now looking to be five somewhat longer ones. Now we're getting to the part of the story I really remember better, not only because I was a teen when I was thinking it up, but also because it started to occur to me how far the story had come since it started. A group of friends traveling through time, having adventures, had now become an interstellar war over the control of alien super weapons. Yes, it's juvenile, but I was juvenile, literally and figuratively, at the time. To this day, I still like when stories progress to a point far beyond where they started, when such progression makes sense each step, but leads to a journey of wide scope. Think Dragon Ball going from an adventure to find some mystic orbs to a multiversal battle for survival. Anyway, on to the next step.

The story continues, our heroes having been victorious against the Razors, but only barely, the decision to introduce four more Slizer units is made; Millennium, Blaster, Spark and Flare. The shadowy alien forces backing the project put more of their own in the larger and more "powerful" units, shuffling Calvin's friends around to lower places in the hierarchy. This causes friction in the team and with 12 Slizer units in the field, the humans find themselves most often under alien command and split up across multiple deployments. Meanwhile, a rival concern in The Century offers a new weapon to the Slizer team, a new and more powerful biomech; the Toa. Yeah, look, at this stage, Bionicle was a thing and I was trying to fold that story into my own and it never really worked. Basically, it was a set up for a tournament arc (can you tell I was watching Dragon Ball Z at the time too?) where the Slizers faced their opposite number in the Toa. It wasn't the best idea, but it led into the next arc, where things really kick off.

During the fight with the Toa, Calvin and the Jungle Slizer disappear. The green Toa is found defeated and mutilated, but there is no trace of what happened. For a while, the team is looking to recover their missing teammate, or rather, Calvin's friends are looking for him, while the aliens want to recover the Jungle Slizer before it falls into the wrong hands. The leader of one faction of the aliens, called "Mantis" by the humans because they can't pronounce his clicking name, pilot of the Millennium Slizer, was badly injured in the battle with the Toa and whilst he recovers, he becomes more antagonistic as time goes on and there is a major fracture in the Slizer team, with the human members even being kept from their Slizers unless a mission is happening. This starts to cause problems when a revolt of workers living in The Century begins to get violent and the various factions that fund the Slizer operation start to disagree over how to handle it, with one faction even leaving and taking the Ice Slizer with them. The stage is set for a possible civil conflict with our human protagonists caught in the middle. Meanwhile, rumors of something like the Jungle Slizer being spotted in conflict zones begin to circulate.

Superhero Media: Men In Black International

After three films, the Men In Black series finally attempts to capitalise on the best premise it had; but it just doesn't quite get there. Personally, I found International to be the best film in the series since the original, but my opinion seems to be in the minority on that. I'd like to believe that the reason isn't anything to do the protagonist being a woman of colour, but hey, that's the world we live in sadly. As a child, Agent M encountered an alien and the Men In Black, starting a lifetime of obsession and attempts to uncover the truth of the agency and to join them. Convincing Agent O, M is sent to the London branch and soon finds herself partnered with the legendary Agent H to solve the murder of an Alien diplomat. It's all pretty standard, really, which I feel is actually the strength of the film, as the drama of the series has always been downplayed as typical for the characters living through it. Of course the Men In Black have to "babysit" alien diplomats, because the whole series leans on the notion of aliens be foreigners.

Nominally, Agent H is the core character of Men In Black International, but unlike many other superhero films that focus on the 'wrong' character, the choice here is clever, with M the audience point-of-view character for the heroic but flawed H. I get the feeling that H is a stand-in for J, though I can't imagine how a broken and failed J would have played with audiences, probably not well. I can see in the film attempts to build a franchise, or perhaps Cinematic Universe, which also appears often in criticisms of International, but if that's something that turns you off a film in this day and age, I wonder how you are able to enjoy media at all? The enemy turns out to have not only been inside the MIB for years, but was, in fact, using the internal secrecy and bureaucracy of the organisation to its advantage, which I can't prove is a criticism of the CIA and American Military Hegemony, but that sure is a reading I'm going to keep making.

If anything is responsible for "letting down" Men In Black International, it would be the script, specifically the dialogue, which is, frankly, bland. I don't get a feel for any of the characters by what they say, only by how they're presented, which makes them seem shallow, as if all are in shorthand, rather than real people. It's a shame because Tessa Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, Liam Neeson and the rest of the cast are all strong actors, but just have nothing to work with; add to this the heavy-CGI and you have a team of excellent actors doing their best to make bland lines compelling while talking to a greenscreen. As much as I've said that Men In Black has plenty of potential in the past, I'm really hoping that International is the end of it for the foreseeable future, because it's only worked the once in all these attempts. Let a few years pass, then bring in a new crew and try for a different sensibility, maybe then we could see an interesting take that moves away from J and the Will Smith shadow over the franchise.

Force S5 - Part I

It all began with the Philadelphia Experiment, that's when they noticed us, and the first mistake most people make when they start thinking about this. Everyone seems to think it was the atomic bomb, and they're half right, as the Trinity Test was what sealed our fate, but once humanity broke the time barrier on October 28, 1943, they were already here. Visitors. The Fifth Kind. Aliens. Whatever language works for you, but that's what they are, and their first experience of humanity was Nazis and the dying days of the Second World War. Those in power noticed the visitors, how could you not, but at that stage only the Americans and the Nazis had the resources to start doing anything about it. Well, also the Mexicans, but that's a story for another time. The Nazis, believing themselves superior to even these new creatures, started to reverse engineer the technology where they could, at their secret Antarctic and Brazilian bases, as well as Poland and Germany herself. You may have heard of Die Glocke (the bell), an early attempt to weaponise anti-gravity fields, but, then again, all of is is something you probably "heard" here or there.

And that's the trick; leak just enough of this into the broader culture so that no one believes it when they see or hear something real. Again, the Philadelphia Experiment is the perfect example, when the details start to work their way out, release a low-budget film that's close enough to the truth, but bad enough to be ignored, and anyone trying to enlighten you looks like a kook from then on. That was the general strategy for the Americans for a while, weponise Hollywood against the general population, foster ignorance and don't worry about the strange lights in the sky. It worked for decades until it started being used against them, ever hear of John Carpenter? Jack Kirby? Tom DeLongue? The pushback is a multimedia project, so yes, you can stream the revolution, on demand. The other big mistake everyone makes is to think of all of this as a conspiracy. You should be thinking CONSPIRACIES. You think the Antarctic Nazis, CIA, Reptilians, Star Children, To The Stars, Shadow People and whoever else are all working the same agenda? Don't be naive, this thing has more sides than you could possibly imagine when you first step through the door. Earth is the sandbox for a war most people will never even see being fought.

So what can I do about it, you ask? How do I fight back? Can we protect Earth from the scum of the universe? Well the bad news is that this whole thing is much bigger than you or I and they have all the money and power we don't. The good news is, there's already someone out there, fighting the good fight, and yeah, you probably heard of them. Forget all the nonsense you've read about the Secret Space Program, "Above Majestic" is Alt-Right propaganda designed to obscure the truth, no kids are being taken and "Pizza-gate" was idiotic. No, Force S5, the Superhuman Soldiers of the Secret Space Service aren't what you think, but they may be the only real way humanity has of forging its own destiny without alien interference or falling to traitors from within like Nazis or the CIA. There's precious few of them, and making more may not even be possible, but that's getting ahead again. You sure you want to go down this road? Last exit before crazy town, make up your mind. Past this point, nothing is as it seems and everything can be questioned; trust me, you'll never look at a can of Fanta the same again. Ok, strap in, we're on a rocket to the stars where aliens exist and you'll spend the rest of your life chasing shadows. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Superhero Media: Star Vs The Forces of Evil

Back when I was last working in a High School as a Counsellor, one of my students was delighted to discover that I was a fan of Gravity Falls and suggested that I may enjoy Star Vs The Forces of Evil on similar merits. At the time, Disney+ didn't exist and I tend not to pirate things, so I said if I came across it I'd give it a go and left it at that. Star Vs The Forces of Evil is pretty damn amazing in the same way that programmes like Adventure Time and Gravity falls are, though it lacks some of the polish that would come later with the new Ducktales, the story grows and characters change in very organic ways and there is a lot for even a jaded adult like me to enjoy. Star Butterfly is the princess of the Mewnian kingdom, who, on her fourteenth birthday, inherits the magical power hereditary to the Queens of her line, but is too impulsive to control her abilities, so is sent to Earth to live with Marco Diaz, a lonely boy who does Karate and is good at school.

Whilst the story starts out with heavy "fish out of water" and "monster of the week" tropes, Star Vs The Forces of Evil soon demonstrates that it has a lot more going on than the initial pitch. The villains change each season, culminating with Star and her friends having to decide the fate of Magic itself. I'd love to wax lyrical about every little shift and how new villains come and go, as Star Vs The Forces of Evil does some of the best world-building and escalation of any television series made for tweens that I've ever seen, but what I really want to talk about is Hot Marco. At one stage, Marco is dragged into the nether-realm of the demon Heckapoo (weird names is a thing in this programme) and spends fifteen years becoming a techo-barbarian warrior legend, who sets the teenage Star into pubescent lust pretty damn hard. Now, I've done a fair amount of Psychothreapeutic work with adolescents, and honestly, about the only programme that covers how they develop romantically and sexually is Big Mouth, but damn if Star Vs The Forces of Evil doesn't come really close in some moments.

Why is it important, or impressive even, that this Magical Girl/DBZ/glitterpunk/My Little Pony mashup engages with sexuality and relationships in between Narwhal Blasts and Ponyhead antics? Well because the relationships, desires and attractions portrayed in Star Vs The Forces of Evil are healthy, and that's pretty damn rare in media for young adults and tweens (Twilight, anyone?). So when Star gets 'revved up' by Hot Marco, or Jackie Lynne discovers her queerness or Eclipsa sacrifices everything for her husband, it feels real; often more real than other soapy superhero fare like Arrow or Gotham. If there is one real issue I have with Star Vs The Forces of Evil, it would be the ending, which feels rushed and leaves things oddly hanging, just in the last few seconds of broadcast, frustratingly enough, so I have to 'headcannon' this one a little. That said, check this series out if you can get past the cutseyness and glitterpunk, it's a damn fun watch and I'm already scouring minis ranges for an approximate Star and Marco (maybe also a Hot Marco) to slip into future Ultimate Alliance games.

Superhero Media: Inspector Gadget 2

One of the most read "Superhero Media" posts on this blog is for the 1999 Inspector Gadget, a little nothing film I reviewed mostly as a joke, not expecting it to do anything. Most of the review doesn't even cover the film, but discusses what would later become a "The Pitch" article about a gritty reboot of the franchise, an article almost no one has read. I mean, no one really reads my blog, in the broad sense, my most popular articles have fewer than 1000 views, and I don't care as I do this for fun and to keep my writing hand in, not for some kind of internet fame. Inspector Gadget 2 picks up essentially where the previous film left off, only with a new cast and a much lower budget. French Stewart is in the lead and pretty much every supporting character is an Australian actor, so I'm guessing this was filmed in Queensland? Seriously, everyone I know from '90s Aussie television gave me some serious whiplash.

Like, sure, get Bruce Spence in, if you're making a vaguely science fiction or horror film in Australia, you're pretty much contractually obligated to use Bruce Spence, but Mark Mitchell and Sigrid Thornton? Is this a reunion of everyone who didn't get crazy famous off Seachange? The film is about as 'good' as one may reasonably expect, with less money to do the slapstick scenes, sets and special effects, large sections of Inspector Gadget 2 look like an Adam West Batman episode, including goons in anachronistic costumes. There seems to be an attempt to move closer to the animated series than the first film, with Klaw using elaborate traps and harebrained schemes to stop Gadget and the latter lucking into winning each encounter. I guess in strict terms of adaptation, Inspector Gadget 2 is 'better' than the previous film, but I maintain that the animated series is not great to begin with, so it should come as no shock that the only reason I go through this film was because I was playing Super Mario Galaxy as it was on.

Given the backlog and that these only come out weekly, you may or may not have noticed that I'm trying to complete series in these reviews. Obviously, series that are ongoing, such as the MCU and DCEU, it's more trying to keep up than finish, but as it stands I still have The New Mutants to round out Fox X-Men, and Men In Black International is in the pipeline. Inspector Gadget 2 was an attempt at this completion, even if it seems only I bother to care about it's existence. You won't be seeing a 28mm Inspector Gadget on my gaming table anytime soon, and I really can't recommend the film to anyone who didn't grow up watching Wonderworld on Aussie television, but if, like me, you really need a break from all the Spider-Man cartoons on Disney+, there are worse things to have on in the background while you paint some miniatures.

The Slizer Project - Part III

When we last left the Slizer saga, a war for control of the technology of Time Travel had ended with the Slizer forces remaining intact and Time Travel being kept in the hands of the powers that be. At this stage of the narrative, you can tell that Anime had started to hit the West and the stories I was making up drifted to more of that style. Certainly the focus of the Slizer stuff moves more towards individual characters rather than epic space wars and the like. Those of a certain vintage will start to recognise more specific Lego sets and brands in the story too, as I had more money of my own and could decide on my purchases.

In the wake of the war, eight pilots chosen from the Slizer team and the aliens and future people with who they work to take on the responsibility of the new Slizer weapons. At this point it's probably worth mentioning that the name "Slizer" is recurrent in the narrative, first appearing as the name of the "Ship" that our heroes traveled through time in and now being revealed to be these weapons. There's a whole thing about a predestination paradox that will come full-circle at the end, but it's probably not as clever as I think it is. To begin with, there are eight Slizer units, Judge, Energy, Jungle, City, Fire, Ice, Sub and Rock, each with a set pilot who must attempt to "bond" with the unit on a mental level. Each unit has its own specialty, though some are more esoteric than others, so the team has to learn a new synergy whilst putting aside their differences to become an effective unit. Of course, all the time, war is brewing again.

One of the big reveals for this arc is that the "big bad" behind the antagonists is actually Daniel, the person who invented time travel and started the group's adventures and betrayed them before Calvin got stranded in the Old West. Daniel is doing a "Kang The Conqueror" bit by working with different versions of himself from across the time stream. As the conflict ramps up again with small incursions and raids, the new technology of the Slizers and the new dynamic of the team keeps putting our heroes on the back-foot. Calvin teams up with his main rival, an alien in the team whose friend he killed way back in the "time traveling adventure" days, to investigate and uncover the enemy base without the Slizer weapons. This doesn't quite go to plan and the Slizers have to come in to save the day, but this is essentially the "team coming together" moment. Some of the inter-member conflict continues, and will play a role later, but the Slizers can work together and the conflict starts to go their way once again. Daniel, however, escapes and rebuilds his group.

Needing something to strike back against the Slizers, Daniel sides with another alien faction that fought in the previous war against the Slizer forces and starts designing a new weapon; The Razors. Much like the Slizers, the Razors are biomechanical weapons, somewhat alive, and requiring a living "pilot" to operate. Whereas the Slizers grow to accommodate their pilots and the synergy provides more power, the Razors feed off theirs and pilots burn out after a while. Due to the limited numbers of both Slizers and Razors, the two sides play around each other and skirmish for a while, with neither coming off the better. Getting impatient, Daniel decides to take a run at the Control Centre of the Slizer organisation, using all the Razors at once and even piloting one himself. All the Slizers launch in response and the largest battle since the war takes place. In the chaos, Calvin and Daniel find themselves squaring off; although Daniel's more powerful machine puts him at the advantage, Calvin and the Jungle Slizer achieve a higher level of synergy than anyone else for a few moments and get the win. Seeing their leader killed, the rest of the enemy forces retreat or surrender, though most of the Razors are destroyed.

Following the battle, the higher ups of the Slizer programme are concerned about the high Synergy achieved by Calvin but that doesn't hold them back from announcing more Slizer units in production... 

Superhero Media: Dracula Untold

Hey, remember the "Dark Universe" that Universal pictures tried to get going with that version of The Mummy that everyone (but me) seemed to hate? Well the first foray into the concept was with Dracula Untold, which, like The Mummy, was pretty poorly reviewed, but I found it reasonably entertaining. The concept of Dracula Untold, of casting Vlad the Impaler as a tragic hero, forced to give up his humanity to save his people is... pretty interesting? The real failing of this film is, for me, not that it's a bit crap (but what do you expect it's a film where Dracula defeats the Turkish army single-handed?) but that it can't help being a bit racist. Not that I'm accusing the cast and crew of being deliberately Islamaphoic, but it's pretty hard to not look that way when the literal text of the film is Vlad the Impaler trying to prevent a takeover from the most advanced nation on the planet at the time. Like, I know there's framing of slavery and all that, but the basic through-line is that it's better to be an undead monster and lose your family than it is to be Muslim. Gross.

What are cool are the fight scenes, with Dracula cleaving through ranks of soldiers like an act of god more so than an actual character. For players of Vampire The Masquerade, like myself, seeing what is essentially a low-generation Inconnu (probably, Dracula is pretty complicated in the World of Darkness) represented in a film the way they're discussed in the fiction. All-in Dracula Untold frames vampires really well, as monsters of folklore that aren't understood and hold such godlike power that fighting against them is essentially pointless. After seeing waves and waves of vampires mowed down in the Blade and Underworld films, it's a nice change of pace that this film only really has a couple of scenes with more than one vampire in it. The finale, where the bulk of the Transylvanian refugees are turned and Dracula has to destroy them to stop them overrunning the planet, is a little much, and the entire thing ends with more of a whimper.

Trying to frame the classic Gothic/"Universal" monsters as heroes isn't a new concept, and it has worked very well in the past, but the problem with the "Dark Universe", at least as I see it, is that it focuses more on the heroic aspect than the monstrous. Losing one's humanity for increased power has a literary tradition stretching almost as far back as Gilgamesh, but Hollywood has always struggled with the concept, as the dominating model centers the heroic over the tragic. Again, I really think the Dark Universe could have been interesting, if not reasonably good, had it had another film or two to get going. Hell, the Legendary Godzilla franchise did really well with just four films (as of time of writing), easily being the best non-Marvel Cinematic Universe, so the eventual team-up film that never happened that probably would have featured Dracula, the Mummy, Mister Hyde and Frankenstein's Monster could have least have been fun to watch.

Superhero Media: Alita Battle Angel

I actually read some Battle Angel Alita manga years ago when I was getting ready to run my "Equalisers" Mutants and Masterminds campaign, as one of the players wanted to play a version of the manga's antagonist, Sechs. That character was never translated over to my miniature collection, as it was pretty annoying and didn't really fit the tone, but it does mean I knew a little about Alita Battle Angel going in. In the distant year of who knows how far in the future, civilization is divided between a floating city and their massive garbage dump, also there's robots, so a bit like that Astro Boy film I covered ages back. Everyone is trying to make their fortune to get to the city, but the only way is some kind of Rollerball/Mario Kart hybrid game for cyborgs, so most just eke by on what they can scavenge. When Christoph Waltz discovers the wreckage of Alita in the dump, our story begins.

A couple of things out of the way with this one first; the animation used to make Rosa Salazar into a living anime girl is both really impressive and kind of unsettling to look at. After a few minutes, my eye got used to it, but every now and then it was a little creepy. Also, Alita Battle Angel is very much made with tween- and teen-aged women as the intended audience, and makes no secret of this, which means there's a bit of romance and lots of feelings, not that it bothered me, because I don't hate on that kind of thing to make myself feel less inadequate. Honestly there isn't that much to Alita Battle Angel, but the construction is solid and the whole product looks brilliant. The cyborg fights were the kick in the pants I needed to get back to my Cyberpunk project, with cool designs and a nice mix of futuristic and retro tech so that every character, even those only on the screen for a moment, looks unique and is easy to identify.

For those who enjoy such, Alita Battle Angel is what I call an ideal "painting movie"; something to have on while doing hobby work which is fun to watch but slow to distract. The setting is interesting enough to recommend itself, though isn't properly explored, but renegade cyborgs and the bounty hunters who chase them are an easy sell to me. I don't think much of Alita as a character, but then, it was the same with the Manga, so I wasn't expecting Lady Macbeth or anything. Sometimes good is good enough, and given the source material, I believe Alita Battle Angel is more than good enough, especially if you just want something fun to watch. Now that the brand has shifted to Disney, there may be another film, or perhaps a series down the line, and I could easily see that working well in the right hands.

Superhero Media: Split

When Split was released, I was studying my Graduate Diploma of Counselling, and it seemed all of the lecturers and students had an opinion about how "damaging" the film was by portraying an antagonist with Multiple Personality Disorder [MPD]. Now, as of the time of writing (February 2021), MPD doesn't "officially" exist, in that most Psychology researchers, practitioners and workers know that it does exist, but there isn't enough peer-reviewed evidence for it to appear in the DSM-5. I've read an entire Post-Doctoral thesis on MPD, and I still don't really understand it, so I'm willing to give screenplay writers a bit of leeway, and, having watched the film a few times, I'm pretty sure Split isn't actually trying to represent MPD in any real way. Spoiler alert; The Horde is a supervillain and he has some kind of powers, so it's clearly not MPD in the same way that Venom doesn't have multiple personalities of any kind reminiscent of reality. Oh yeah, remember that Split is a backdoor sequel to Unbreakable? Because a lot of people were oddly mad about that at the time.

In all the jokes and memes, it's easy to forget that M. Night Shyamalan has made several really good films, Split being one of them. Split is tense, atmospheric and thrilling for most of the run, even in the closing segments where The Beast is out and displaying super-strength, bulletproof skin and wall-crawling powers. James McAvoy is brilliant as all 24 members of The Horde, even managing different mannerisms for most, and Anya Taylor-Joy does an excellent turn as Casey, blending strength and vulnerability better than most young actors in thrillers. Where Split does fall down though, is in its representations of Mental Health, not so much any conditions but in the practice and lived experience of those with a history of trauma. Throughout the film, Casey flashes back to her younger self, learning to hunt and suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her uncle, and it is through these experiences that she is able to survive captivity and the Horde. Quite literally in the climax.

The Beast's agenda, that only the "pure" can survive, turns out to mean that only those who have suffered are worthy of life, so when he sees Casey's scars, he backs off. Yes, it's the old token of "suffering makes you stronger" and, speaking as a Psychotherapist, no, trauma doesn't actually make you "stronger" in any sense. There are also concepts of Mental Illness giving a person superhuman powers, but that bothers me less, as it's essentially just The Horde to whom that applies, and the old chestnut of a therapist being more focused on their career than their client. Given that neither Split nor Shaymalan is unique in their unhelpful take on Mental Health Psychology, I really can't muster up much anger over it, though I can understand how some people get quite offended by it. As is, Split is a solid thriller, and I would like to see more films constructed around a super-powered antagonist menacing normal people. Someone like Deatwatch, Razorfist or the Dollmaker would be really interesting.

The Slizer Project - Part II

In our last article, I was talking about the silly game I played with my Lego men as a boy and the huge, sprawling narrative and lore that spilled out of that. For those who think this is a big waste of everyone's time, this is forming part of a series of loosely-aligned articles I've begun work on, including the Danton series, where I look over my old notes or take another look at a "bad" piece of media and try to parse out something of value. Sure, many of the ideas I had when I was a child or teen lacked subtlety, borrowed directly from other sources or were just overdone, but there are gems in there that I may as well use, rather than discard.

When we last left our protagonist, who, of course, had my name originally, but got rechristened 'Calvin' in a later draft, had just been arrested for illegal time travel and offered the chance to join the organisation that had tracked him down. Calvin is introduced to the Slizer Team, a military organisation set up by, but independent from, the great powers of The Century. The Century is an area of space and time in which advanced societies exist, finding it once they break the time barrier and conquer interstellar flight; think of it like a 'higher' universe, only much smaller. Honestly, I never got that part down, and it doesn't really make sense, it was just a way to justify the "boarders" of the setting. A big shock awaits Calvin, as most of his former crew of time travelers, except the traitorous Richard and deceased Stephen, of course, are present and also part of the Slizer Team. Calvin and his friends, and a few new characters and former antagonists, mostly aliens, form a unique team within the broader organisation, which is more military in focus, using their experience to travel into history and stop rogue time travelers.

Man, I know I was a literal child when I came up with this stuff, but it's giving me major ACAB vibes now. Oh well, it does get better, I promise. Much like Calvin, his friends have spent time in different periods of history, learning new skills that now come in handy on missions. Combined with the new members, the team takes a little while to gel, but becomes pretty effective at their missions, capturing rogue elements and keeping history intact. As some antagonists recur, our heroes begin to see a pattern and start investigating just why so many incursions into the timestream and The Century itself, are happening. Some investigation soon reveals a broad organisation behind much of the time crime happening, not merely come conspiracy, but a whole revolutionary army looking to overthrow the current hierarchy and liberate Time Travel for their own purposes. Now, as much as I love a good people's revolutionary army, The Resistance here is mostly wrong, seeing Time Travel as a resource to exploit rather than a resource to protect, like the Slizer Team tries to do. With the reveal of the Resistance, the conflict moves to The Century itself, with a full-scale guerilla war breaking out.

Whilst there are definitely some cool spaceship battles and the like, most of the conflict is in small raids, spy games and terror attacks, keeping our heroes guessing as to who they can trust and how to even fight such a foe. As the military industrial machinery of The Century starts to fail under the pressure, the Slizer team makes a desperate decision to take on the Resistance leadership directly, assaulting the planet they're hiding on in a sci-fi commando raid complete with plenty of flying lasers, spaceships and, of course, sword fights. Look, I was a kid, I was just getting into 40k and the minifig I used for Calvin came with one of those cavalry sabres, so a big sword fight to round out the story was pretty much a given. Actually, for a long time this fight was meant to be a big deal in Calvin's journey as a character, being the first time he kills someone deliberately and/or without his own life being in danger. We'll see how that plays out later, but for now cutting the head off the snake has worked to a certain degree, and The Resistance surrenders for the most part.

Victory has been achieved, and peace reigns for now, though some Resistance cells are still active, the Slizer force has control of the Timestream once again. Battered but emboldened, the powers that be look at shoring up their defenses for the next threat, revealing a new hybrid weapons platform that is ready for field testing; the Slizers.

Superhero Media: Carmen Sandiego (Netflix)

After seeing a few reviews for this version of Carmen Sandiego, I decided to start watching it in-between other programmes, and quickly found myself more than a little charmed. Whilst the individual elements of Carmen Sandiego rarely rise above the level of competent, the complete effect is rather excellent and the overall progamme highly engaging. Having been raised on a secret island university for criminals, "Black Sheep" flees when she fails the final exam, takes the name "Carmen Sandiego" from a coat and starts to fight her previous colleagues. Yes, in this version, Carmen steals from thieves, only to return the valuable historical artifacts later as she attempts to bring down V.I.L.E. (Villainous organisation for Intrigue Larceny and Evil) and stay ahead of the law herself. Helping Carmen out are Player, a teen genius hacker, and a two-person Bostonian brother and sister racing team, both of whom seem to have a massive crush on Carmen, but we won't be doing any of that, because this is for the kids.

VILE is made up of a faculty of semi-retired master thieves and a cadre of younger criminals all of whom have a theme and gimmick; like "Neil the Eel" who wears a friction-less suit, "The Goat" who does Parkour or "Crackle" who has a shock stick. In this, VILE isn't wholly dissimilar to something like HIVE or Crossbones' crime school from mainstream comics, though Carmen's team definitely has more of a "Ocean's 11" vibe with a splash of The Avengers (the British one). The formula of Carmen Sandiego is pretty set, with a new item to be stolen each episode and an explanation of the history and culture of the the place the team is headed to, many of which are actually pretty interesting. For example, the intro to Australia actually covers our strict biosecurity laws and the reasons behind them, which is almost never covered in popular media. Though Carmen does just visit the Outback and the Sydney Opera House, so I wasn't too excited.

The narrative through-line, such as it is, concerns Carmen searching for her family, and whilst the story comes across a little rushed in the last season, I was never disinterested in what was happening. Again, nothing in Carmen Sandiego is exemplary, but every element is done with a great deal of competence and the final product is both highly engaging and visually excellent. If you're looking for a criminal organisation a tad more grounded than Hyrda or AIM, VILE may well fit the bill, and even if not, Carmen Sandiego is a decent binge for a slow weekend that doesn't outstay its welcome or try to be anything more than it really needs to. Whilst I won't be actively seeking a 28mm Carmen for my games, should I happen to stumble across something suitable, she would at least make a fun little table "Easter Egg", like my TARDIS, Madagascar Penguins or Batsignal.

Thinking Out Loud: Do Cyborgs Dream of Electric Lesbians?

Following on from my watching of the 2019 Ghost In The Shell film, I was discussing the franchise with friends and one of them was surprised when I mentioned that, canonically, Mokoto is a Lesbian. Is this something that people are not aware of? I'll admit that most versions don't cover Mokoto's sexuality as explicitly as the original Manga, with that one page I'm sure you found pretty quick, but even Stand Alone Complex has pretty obvious elements hinting at what's going on, or did you not notice that all of Mokoto's friends are women and they like to all sleep in her four-poster bed? I think the problem of "Queer Invisibility" is down to two reasons with Ghost In The Shell, one being that a hetronormative societal lens tends to minimalise queer behaviour; "oh they're just gal-pals!". Secondly, elements of Japanese Queer culture are not often translated over to the West and can be missed. Even with all my broad reading and viewing, I've found scant little available in English, though I highly recommend the novel Forbidden Colours if you can find it.

Anyway, let's discuss that infamous page in the manga, the one with all the naked women. There's some translation issues, but what is essentially happening is a group of women are using cyberwear to link their brains together and trigger a shared orgasm. Now, that's not strictly sex as we currently understand it, but it's pretty damn sapphic behaviour, especially for a high-ranking member of the Japanese Military. And here's were we finally get to the point I have to make about Scarlett Johanssen playing Mokoto. In Stand Alone Complex and S.A.C. 2nd Gig, it is pretty strongly hinted that Mokoto defected to Japan during "the war" (in-setting there was a third World War, but the details are pretty sketchy), most probably from Europe, as she's dismissive of Americans pretty often. But why bother with this character element? Well, even today, Queer persons and culture tend to be marginalised in Japan, so a Japanese creator wanting to make a queer character might be expected to find a way around criticism by, just for example, making her European rather than native-born Japanese.

Now, the 2017 Ghost In The Shell kind of wimps out on what could have been an interesting premise around Mokoto's origins and sexuality, but how much of that is down to backlash against Johanssen playing a character many assume to be Asian is pretty difficult to determine. I recall getting into a pretty fierce argument with a Chinese-Australian acquaintance who was adamant that Johanssen was "stealing" the role from an East Asian actor, and whilst I can see her perspective, Mokoto is, in a sense, a European woman wearing the "shell" of a Japanese woman. Of course, the 2017 version did nothing with this premise, which could have been really interesting, instead making Mokoto a Japanese woman in a European cyborg shell. I tend to believe that particular script element was due to backlash against Johanssen in the press, but of course I can never prove it. Hopefully any future adaptations of the story and characters for Western audiences do something interesting with Mokoto and her complexities.