Superhero Media: Upgrage

I've heard Upgrade referred to as "the good Venom movie", or at least "a good Venom" movie, and whilst I'll admit that it is a much better film than Venom; there is a lot more going on here than that one notion. Set in a near-future where automation and surveillance are so ubiquitous that criminals are forced to pay hackers to scramble their online identities, most Police are drone pilots and most people have chips in their bodies, Upgrade is strictly more of a Horror film than Superheroes, but it may be worth the watch anyway. Grey Trace is a motor mechanic specialising in old cars who refuses to upgrade to any cyberwear, married to a successful tech professional, when tragedy strikes and he is paralysed in a violent assault. Offered a way to walk again by reclusive tech billionaire, Eron Keen, Grey soon finds himself host to "STEM", a learning AI that can take over his body to do awesome fight scenes and basically just be better than the symbiote in Venom in every way. 

Logan Marshall-Green does a brilliant job of moving like a puppet cadaver in many scenes of Upgrade, and that tends to be the end of most reviews, but as the film was shot in my home town of Melbourne, it actually means a lot more to me than just being cool and fun to watch. You see, part of my Undergraduate Major in Film Studies was focused on Australian Cinema, so I've watched quite a few films made in Melbourne and they always feature two locations, the National Gallery of Victoria and the carpark at Melbourne University. You see, the carpark was the set of the "Last of the V8s" scene from Mad Max, so it's iconic and a bit of a film nerd reference. The Gallery is just a beautiful building, so that's no shocker. Upgrade uses neither building, but opts for some out-of-the-way locations and sections of industrial land that really sell the burgeoning dystopia of the setting, which is fantastic. 

As much as Upgrade is reminiscent of Venom, I got more of a Punisher and Ghost in the Shell vibe from it myself, with revenge not being something Grey wants to do, but feels driven to and the not-quite-cyberpunk-yet milieu of the entire film. Alought much better, Upgrade makes an excellent companion to films like Code 8 and Night Watch, which provide a "darker" setting, but still sit adjacent to the superhero genre in many ways, and could work together along their shared themes of dehumanisation and the entropy of progress. Would STEM be a villain in this world, or is the dial already so far against humanism that wholesale murder doesn't invalidate the possibility of heroic motives? I don't think I'll be going back to Upgrade all that often, other than just to show people something cool that they have not seen, as I did have fun, but there's not a lot to dig down into beyond that. Still, I'll be watching this before I watch Venom again. 

Miniatures Finished - 07/03/21

Despite sending a decent amount of time sorting out my Superhero miniatures during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, it appears that I always have more to paint than I remember. The current focus of my work is actually just painting the overflow of the storage box I keep the undercoated miniatures in.

Cyborg Spider-Man: A random booster pull, I based him up for Reality's Edge Cyberpunk gaming, though I expect he'll see the table during my slow-burn "Spiderverse" project. Heroclix

Hit-Monkey: Another booster random, I actually had to look this character up because I'd never heard of him. Seems fun enough, and is such a small piece to store that I won't miss the space. Heroclix

The Punisher: Commission piece done for a friend, the face is pretty poor, but the rest of the sculpt is quite nice. Heroclix

Godzillas: I had a friend run these off when members of my local club started doing 1/1200 scale naval gaming, just as something fun to throw on the otherwise bare tables. 3D Prints

Gentlemen Ghost: Great character, been meaning to paint him up for games for a while now. Good thing I've been painting lots of ghosts for other games lately. Heroclix

Superhero Media: Goku Midnight Eye

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, if we wanted to watch anime that wasn't Ghost In The Shell, Pokemon or Neon Genesis Evangelion being repeated yet again, we had to brave the back of dusty video stores for cassettes that had no English writing other than the title and then try and sneak them past the person at the desk because we didn't have proof of age. One of the staples of my friendship group was Goku Midnight Eye, a two-part OVA (Original Video Animation) about a cyberpunk private detective in future Tokyo with plenty of blood, boobs and laughable translations to keep our juvenile minds entertained. Being vintage 1980s anime, Goku Midnight Eye was made off the whiff of an oily rag, and it shows just how cheap it was in plenty of sequences where only one element on-screen is animated, one of the most notorious being a scene where the water is rising in a corridor. Now that I'm more than twice as old as when I first saw it, however, I have to say, Goku Midnight Eye is actually pretty fun. 

Let's get it straight, "fun" doesn't mean "good", and Goku Midnight Eye is wall-to-wall cheese and camp machismo with barely a plot to be had, so if your tolerance for such is low, maybe give it a miss. After getting involved with a case surrounding a Corporate Tech Zillionaire suspected of being an arms dealer, Goku is almost killed by a bionic hypnotist peacock woman and is abducted by aliens who replace his wounded eye with the greatest supercomputer ever devised. Returned to Earth, Goku discovers that he can hack any device by thinking about it and sets about taking down the antagonist and his bodyguard of animalistic cyber-women, one of whom is a stripper and a motorcycle because that his how this anime rolls. In the second adventure, Goku has to track an experimental military grade cyborg, who basically has telekinesis, but we're told can shoot plasma from his skin. This second outing is a little better animated and Goku actually uses his powers more than once, but don't go in expecting something on the level of Akira. 

For people that have only seen more modern anime, or just the classics, Goku Midnight Eye is worth tracking down for the experience alone, you can find it on YouTube most of the time and the DVD is obscenely cheap from most outlets that stock weird shit. Watching this film again was a matter of gearing up for Reality's Edge and Cyberpunk 2020 for me, rather than an outright superhero bent, but, honestly, Goku could slide into Batman Beyond, Marvel 2099 or even Judge Dredd with little trouble. The shaggy hair, slim suit, tie and no shirt are pure '80s peak cyberpunk goodness and you know you want a slice of that in your life, even for just the 90 odd minutes the whole mess runs for. If you can make it through everything silly, sexist and backwards about Goku Midnight Eye, you may at least get a few laughs and some cool design aesthetic out of the experience. I know I'll be mining this for my next Cyberpunk 2020 campaign.

Superhero Media: Ghost In The Shell (1995)

If you have never seen Ghost In The Shell, and are only aware of the subsequent television programmes and other films, you really should track it down and give it a watch; it's a masterpiece of posthumanist fiction. Yes, Ghost In The Shell is a slow-burn, think-piece about the line between human and machine, punctuated with gorgeous action scenes and extreme violence, but the focus is on higher philosophical ideas and the intersection between politics and technology. In the 21st century, Public Security Section 9 are a small, elite squad in the Tokyo police, tasked with dealing with high-end cyber crimes, their field leader is Mokoto, an enigmatic woman who has gone "full cyborg"; only her brain remains human. When an elusive hacker known only as The Puppet Master pops up in the latest case for Section 9, things spiral out of control quickly, as the Japanese and American governments battle for control of what may be an unshackled AI, Mokoto and Section 9 are caught in the middle. 

For fans of the Stand Alone Complex series of anime, the first Ghost In The Shell can be off-putting, not only for its favouring heavy themes over action, but also because many of the recognisable characters have less depth of personality than in later productions. Ghost In The Shell is a true Science Fiction film, in that the existence of fictional science drives the narrative; in this instance, posthumanist prosthesis that blurs the line between life and machine. Mokoto spends several scenes wondering how "human" she really is, if her brain, and potentially just her mind, can be moved from one body to another, especially when she may not even own her own body. One genius element of this film that I had completely forgotten was that the members of Section 9, possibly excluding Togusa, have their weapons-grade cyborg bodies provided by the Government, meaning that retirement may mean death or being a brain in a jar for their remaining days. I know I've seen this idea in cyberpunk media before, but damn is it good and feels really relevant in the world we now live in. 

Although the character models aren't as sharp as they will be in later media, Ghost In The Shell is a beautiful film, with many of the backgrounds being hand-painted and plenty of chance to see them in some of the slower sequences. The music, composed by Kenji Kawai, is far more atmospheric and futuristic than all the synthwave and cyberwave you can find on YouTube for your cyberpunk gaming, though is sadly hard to get your hands on these days, at least legitimately. For those wondering, I'm not going to mention the manga here, nor the infamous sex scene from it, only to mention that how technology has influenced Mokoto's sexuality and how she was written are certainly things I will be talking about down the track. Back in the day, Ghost In The Shell was a big deal, with pretty much every nerd and cult film fan I know gushing over it, but now it seems to have faded from memory. If you enjoy The Matrix, Cyberpunk 2077 or any bleeding-edge tech sci-fi of the past couple of decades, go check out Ghost In The Shell to see where a lot of the visual elements you know came from. It's pretty much a masterpiece.

Miniatures Finished: Public Security Section 9

I was meant to have these all done for Little Wars 2018, but a bit of a mix up at Hasslefree Miniatures (which was quickly resolved by their, extremely courteous, customer service) meant I got them after the event. Still, I had everything but Mokoto done, so I figured I may as well hop to it.

Public Security Section 9 

 

Tachikoma, repainted Japanese vending machine toys. They're actually a little big, scale-wise, but they work well enough on the table. 

 

Bateu and his Tachickoma "Think Tank". Bateu is Hasslefree, I've had him for a while, but he was in dire need of some touch-ups. 

 

 I did have a Major, but when I came into a bit of cash, I decided to splurge on the Clear Resin version and the metal one to match. Beautiful models from Hasslefree and well worth the price. 

If I get a bit more cyberpunk gaming in, Section 9 will be making an appearance. If I can find a Togusa, that would do me nicely for the team. Not that I'd complain if someone made a Paz, Bouma and Saito as well. 

Superhero Media: Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex

I was watching this programme in order to prepare for the Cyberpunk table I'm helping create for Little Wars Melbourne 2018, my contribution being a "Public Security Section 9" team and a few terrain pieces. As I've been trying to keep my "Superhero Media" articles more or less in "order", I was tempted to hold off on Stand Alone Complex until after I reviewed the original Ghost in the Shell, but then should I do the manga first? It's a bit of a rabbit-hole, because of the differing continuities and all that, so I just kind of went for it. In 21st century Japan, the majority of the population have augmented bodies with "cyberbrains" that facilitate a world connected 24/7 with everyone and everything. In order to protect from the bold new frontier of "cyber-terror", Public Security Section 9, a collection of hackers, detectives and former combat cyborgs, operate in the shadows, with minimal government oversight. When a case evoking a kidnapping six years previous hits the news, Section 9 may be the only team equipped to finally answer the question of the "Laughing Man". 

The series is divided up between "Stand Alone" episodes, with no connection to the main plot, and "Complex" episodes, which follow the Laughing Man investigation; so if you want to see the story but not necessarily all of the 'filler", you can with a little help from a wiki. My DVDs also feature the "Tachikoma Days" shorts after each episode, which are fun, but can kind of ruin the flow if you're binging, like I did this time. Sorry that this "Superhero Media" is more focused on technical aspects than narrative, but to give too much away kind of ruins the programme. The Laughing Man investigation leads Section 9 to a potential government cover-up and corrupt drug companies, which makes for some clever episodes punctuated with combat-grade cyborgs beating each other down to keep the pace up. Many of the "Stand Alone" episodes are really entertaining and build the world nicely, expanding on the "last world war" in which Mokoto, Bateu and many of the other cyborgs fought and giving glimpses of what China, England and the USA are like in the Ghost in the Shell world. 

It hasn't come across in this article, sorry, but Stand Alone Complex is a really clever programme in the way Anime fans insist that all anime is (even when it isn't). To define the term "Stand alone complex"; 'Accidental collectivism made up of detached individuals, resembling a highly organized conspiracy and lacking a deliberate origin.' Or, as the programme uses "copies produced without the presence of an original". Both definitions work as a metaphor for the narrative and the programme itself, with the story and series being created with the blessing-yet-absence of Shiro Masume, the author of the original. There are no simple solutions in Stand Alone Complex, no "A-B-C" progression, it is dense and deals with some deeper themes, perfect if you've been watching a lot of crappy superhero films, like I have, but maybe not great if you want to see cyborgs beating the crap out of each other all of the time. Like, have a grounding in existential philosophy if you want to get the most out of this programme. And no, you don't need to see the film first, but the film is still "better".

Cyberpunk In Drublic

Did a second playtest for the Little Wars Melbourne Cyberpunk game, just myself, Brendan and Jason. Public Security Section 9 went up against two Corp Raider teams in a quick game of Cyber Alley (Pulp Alley variant). We didn't finish the game, but it did highlight a few things we need to get onto in the next few weeks before the game. The terrain looked great though, so we're well on-track. 

 This was a 4x4' set-up, but the finished table will be 6x4' 

 My urban mat for Superheroes came in handy. 

 Table-level views show off the detail of the terrain.

 Section 9 deployed near the chemical plant. 

 Corporate Raiders move through the processing plant. 

 Network 21 Litigation Team agents appear behind a local Hab. 

 Bateu moves for the first Plot Point while the Major provides cover. 

 An Enforcer moves up to a Plot Point. 

 A well-timed Challenge takes the Corp Stooge out of the game. 

 The Cyborg leading the second Corp team takes a plot point. 

 Minions move over the roof of a local business. 

 The Major opens fire at the Corp Raiders. 

 Bateu moves up to provide support. 

 Combat Drones move forward. 

 A minion attempts a plot point... 

 ...but things do not go well. 

 Media drone and Corp Enforcer exchange fire. 

 Network 21 is not going well on the roof of the Hab. 

 Corporate soldiers aren't happy about potential arrest. 

 The Major is wounded. 

 Drones scan the alley. 

 Network 21 Hardsuit books for the Plot Point. 

Bateu blasts away at the Drones, to little effect. 

After that, the game kind of petered out as we started discussing the little things we needed to get done. But, there were a few more pictures taken by other club members, so enjoy those: