Superhero Media: Fantasic Four - The Animated Series (1994)

I have fond memories of watching "The Marvel Action Hour" hosted by Stan Lee himself, featuring Iron Man and Fantastic Four. Some years back, I picked up the Iron Man DVDs pretty cheap, from a supermarket of all places, and found it to be not as bad as I remembered. Fantastic Four however, is pretty much almost entirely hot garbage from the second the campy theme song finishes. Yes, I like the campy theme song and they should bring it back for the next film, like with the "Spider-Man Theme" in the Rami films. What makes Fantastic Four so bad? Mostly a lack of money, really; the animation is cheap and repetitive, the scripts are paper-thin and a lot of the acting is odd a lot of the time. There is a conflict in tone between classic Silver Age Fantastic Four comics and trying to be hip and '90s; the Four having a black-tie variety benefit at which Johnny performs a terrible rap, just for example. 

In terms of the classic comic stories though, Fantastic Four is pretty comprehensive, even managing to revisit Doom stealing the power of the Silver Surfer after the first version isn't really all that good. Most of what you'd expect is here, in the forms of Galactus, Skrulls, Mole Man, Inhumans and Kree, plus there is a hefty dose of other Marvel characters, including Hulk being voiced by Ron Perlman. Most of the "guest stars" are from the other 1990s Marvel animated series, but there is the occasional fun surprise, like Ghost Rider, who takes on Galactus with his "Penitent Stare". Of course, we get a good Hulk Vs Thing fight, with plenty of smashing and clobbering and, importantly, no decisive winner, because you want to keep the fans wanting more. 

Probably the thing Fantastic Four does best is show the titular Four in a contemporary setting, which is often considered a difficult task at the very least. Personally, as someone who's actually read a fair few FF comics, I think they work fine in any era, so long as you can maintain the idea of Reed Richards being on the bleeding edge of science and technology. Even this series tries to mess with the formula and fails, with Doom being German for the first few episodes before it shifts to Latveria and moves on. Thing is, the Fantastic Four work as they are and really don't need too much changing. Averaged out, FF was the highest selling monthly comic for the entire Bronze, Dark and Platinum ages, so these are stories we want to see, even if they're not always done well. 

Superhero Media: Danger Mouse

Yes, I watched the entirety of the classic Danger Mouse, and I don't recommend that you do the same. That is not to say that Danger Mouse is bad, which it is, of course, not, just that binging it quickly kind of killed the enjoyment I was getting. The World's Greatest Secret Agent, Danger Mouse, and his mostly-useless assistant Penfold, battle the nefarious foes of freedom across the globe and Willesden Green in mostly unlikely circumstances. Like many programmes of its era, Danger Mouse has dated, mostly around stereotypes and backwards attitudes, especially against Mexicans, for some reason, but it holds up despite being steeped in ideas of Empire. If you can handle wacky, then Danger Mouse is a heady draught, with skouse aliens, giant bananas and more episodes in space than you would think for what is, ostensibly, a spy adventure. 

The jokes are repetitive and often deliberately bad, but there is a charm to Danger Mouse that transcends the surface quality, or lack thereof. Like I said, don't watch a lot of this back-to-back, as it starts to grate after a while, but if Danger Mouse is an old hazy memory or something an older relative talks about a lot, then dive in for a little bit and see how you go. The review of the newer seasons is actually one of the most viewed articles on this blog, so clearly there is a love of Danger Mouse and Penfold to be had out there. Such is the nature of the programme that I really can't recall too much about specific episodes to recommend, though images of sentient bagpipes, golfing Martians and ghost busses haunt my dreams. 

If you really want to game Danger Mouse (might work as a Pulp Alley game?) there are a few free STLs around for 3D printing, I'm eyeing off one of Danger Mouse and Penfold in the X-1 for printing at about 6mm scale, which should look right next to 28mm humans. I've never been one for gaming in a comedic tone myself, but it's worth remembering that Danger Mouse does shockingly little fighting in the programme, mostly resorting to a combination of dumb luck, puns and contrivance. Danger Mouse may be the world's greatest secret agent, but Danger Mouse isn't really the best programme, being very much throwaway entertainment for kids more interested in colour and movement than a maligned classic awaiting reappraisal. Still, I love it and will probably go back for more at some stage. 

Superhero Media: Daredevil - Season 3

It took a while to get here, but mark another Marvel Netflix series as done. All-in, I feel that Daredevil was the strongest of the Netflix series, The Defenders notwithstanding, in that all three Seasons even out better, even if technically Jessica Jones had better individual Seasons. Rounding out the story of Kingpin, the third season sees a conclusion to long-running elements of the programme and introduces a version of Bullseye to the story. Despite all the positives to be had, I was pretty worn out on Daredevil by the end, as it was clear that the writing team actually wanted to be working on a cable crime procedural rather than a superhero series. For example, Dex (Bullseye) spends several episodes in a copy of the Daredevil costume, murdering people (taken from the comics), but at no stage does Matt don the horns again. Look, I know lots of people preferred the black burglar outfit, but he has an iconic costume and if he's not wearing it, that's just kind of stupid.

Fisk being back is a heck of a lot of fun, but his subtle menace and far reach is replaced with an unbelievable level of infiltration of the FBI and plans working so far in advance even Doctor Doom would be rolling his eyes. When the action ramps up, Daredevil shines, especially when Matt goes up against Dex and the pair use everything at hand to deal damage to each other, with the visceral and bloody combat hearkening back to the best fight scenes in the first season. A little too much time is spent on setting up and justifying Dex as a character, which is a waste as Bullseye is always better as cypher, I honestly feel that a version of the "Kingpin's Fist" idea from Ultimate Spider-Man would have made for a better story. The best part of the third season is Foggy, who insists on taking Kingpin down through the courts, almost ending up as District Attorney of New York in the process, giving him the most growth and bringing together his character beats from previous seasons nicely. 

Unlike most of the "last" Marvel Netflix series, there is no crossover episode of Daredevil, which feels like a missed opportunity, especially with a focus around the legal process, Gerry Hogarth would have made sense, if not Jessica Jones being around at some point. In terms of the season being a crime programme, Daredevil is pretty good, but I wanted superheroes when I tuned in, so all-in I found this last entry lackluster. Charlie Cox was a really good Matt Murdock, and the supporting cast was always strong, but this being where it ends makes me feel like the journey wasn't really worth my time. Of course we'll see Matt and Daredevil again as our journey with the MCU continues, but to my mind none of it really matters to the broader plot of this season, if that's what you were watching for. I think it will be a long time before I go back to the Netflix series, but there is still an appeal there.

Superhero Media: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

I remember seeing a few reviews of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power in which the author seemed to not be sure just how queer the programme was in the early seasons; myself, less than three episodes in, I was like "yep, this is gay alright". For once, I am using "gay" as a prerogative, though not to be at all insulting or dismissive, She-Ra is just super gay and that's part of what makes it amazing. For me there was a moment very early on, possibly even in the first episode (the issue with binging a programme being that individual episodes tend to blend together), where Catra is seen to not actually have her own bunk in the barracks, but habitually sleeps curled up at Adora's feet. I know that's also a visual gag about Catra being a cat, but their whole relationship and how Catra has been shaped by it, is super gay. So yes, She-Ra is just as woke, queer, technicolor and Hopepunk as you've probably heard, all whilst being well written, pretty damn smart and having a great cast. Sure, the last season feels a little rushed, but overall the programme is solid and well worth a watch. 

What I liked most about She-Ra is that it answered a question I'd had in the back of my mind for a few years; how do you do superheroes in a fantasy setting? Most fantasy settings already have beings with more-than-human powers, so is there a need for anything like a costumed hero? I've seen a few attempts in roleplaying games over the years, the Grey Guardian[s] in Pathfinder, a friend's Exalted campaign and even a recurring character in my own early Dungeons & Dragons with something of an Immortus vibe. It works in She-Ra because the titular Princesses have access to greater magical powers than the general populous of Etheria and the Horde primarily relies on technology that is weak to most forms of magic. In contrast, Bow and Entrapta use technology and are (mostly) on the hero team (I could write a whole essay about Entrapta's neurodiversity and her political agnosticism inadvertently enabling fascism), so there is a role for technology, when used harmoniously with nature and the magic native to Etheria. The whole setting is reasonably rich and deep for this kind of programming, and could make for some fun gaming. 

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is pretty amazing, but much like Adventure Time or Big Hero 6 - The Series, the drawbacks come from being a programme for children and tweens. It's great that the world presented has queer, genderqueer and ACE representation, but I suspect in hindsight, that will just become the norm and it won't stand out as much any more. I'm getting a big cult vibe from She-Ra, like I'll be hearing about it for years from a handful of people and my liking, but not loving, the series will cause some friction with die-hard fans. And look, that's fine, my love of Tron is more than enough of a fanboy obsession that I'll forgive it in others, especially when the love is driven by hopepunk inclusive wokeness. I'm not going to be chasing down any miniatures of these characters for my own games, though I would consider Entrapta if I found one, but I would 100% be behind someone dropping models down for SuperSystem or Frostgrave if that's what they wanted to do.

Superhero Media: Tron Uprising

I had heard a lot of good things about Tron Uprising, an animated series set before Tron Legacy expanding on the backstory, but I was in for a serious shock when I finally got around to watching it on Disney+. Created by Adam Horowitz (sadly not Ad-Rock), known for Lost, Once Upon A Time and other cult programmes, the cast includes Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Paul Reubens, Lance Henriksen, Reginald VelJohnson and Bruce Boxleitner (the original Tron), making for quite a creative team. In Ar-Con city, a major hub on the Grid, Clu's forces move in and Blake, a young mechanic program, finds himself fighting back against the occupation, soon attracting the attention of none other than Tron. Despite being billed as a bridging series between Tron and Tron Legacy, Tron Uprising is heavily weighted towards the latter, in terms of design, tone and even in using a poorly-processed version of the Daft Punk soundtrack. The animation is also a little odd, with characters having slightly askew proportions, which takes a little getting used to. 

Quibbles aside, along with the typical limitations of animated television for children, Tron Uprising is at times transcendentally good, crafting a world at once truly alien but very real. Although I'm not fond of the exaggerated character models, the landscapes of Ar-Con and the surrounding wilderness can be breathtaking, a neon-noir dreamscape in contrasting blue and red palettes. Due to the smaller budget, the beauty of the scenes never reaches Into the Spider-Verse levels, but as someone trying to keep up their enthusiasm for making cyberpunk miniatures and terrain, Tron Uprising was an inspiration. More so than other entries of the series, Tron Uprising is a superhero series, with Blake taking on the mantle of Tron while the original heals from grievous wounds suffered when rebelling against Clu. Later on it is revealed that Blake is not the first program that Tron has tried to train, and there is a trail of bodies and regrets behind him. The fight is almost impossible to win, but giving up is not an option. 

Sadly, there isn't any closure to Tron Uprising, with the season finale merely bridging to the next season, which never came. The growth and change that characters undergo is comparable to efforts like Gravity Falls, with a several episode arc dedicated to antagonist Paige and her journey from medical professional to willing participant in the Occupation. To say I would have liked more of Tron Uprising is an understatement, though probably not all that much more, perhaps only a second season to tie up events and lead into the main narrative of Tron Legacy. As much as they're not truly deep characters for the most part, I want to see what happens to Blake and Paige and how Tron becomes Rinzler, but it seems I never will get that story. There is also precious little new information of the Isos and how their appearance drove Clu to despotism, which would have hopefully have come up more in the second season that never was. If you have Disney+, this one is well worth the 19-episode watch between other things.

Thinking Out Loud: The Foreman Paradox

Here's a little Doctor Who fan-theory that I posted on my personal Facebook a couple of years ago.

The character of Susan Foreman causes a lot of friction with fans, as the First Doctor claimed that she was his granddaughter, so is she a Time Lady, human or something else?

If we take the novel Lungbarrow as true (which of course we do), then we know that the Time Lord Houses do not reproduce sexually, they are "woven on genetic looms", rendering every member of that House a 'cousin', eschewing what humans would consider a familial structure of parents and offspring. We also know that not every Gallifreyian is a Time Lord/Lady, as it is a rank attained through the Time Lord Academy, however, most members of the Time Lord Houses are assumed to be put through this education and eventual transformation. The Doctor famously only graduated by a slim margin on his fourth attempt. It is only after their first regeneration that a Time Lord attains the physical state of that rank, as the First Doctor only had one heart, but the Second Doctor had two.

Given her apparent age, and deference to the Doctor, we can assume that Susan has not regenerated, and given that the Doctor placed her in an educational institution, she has either not yet entered the Academy, or was in the process of studying and had not yet graduated. It is possible that Susan is a human the Doctor has "borrowed" and is educating, as he would later attempt again with Ace, but Susan's grasp of 4th dimensional mathematics does imply that she is from Gallifrey.

So where does the grand-parental relationship come into it? Well, for that one, let's turn to the Translation circuits that can be found in the TARDIS and other TTCs (Time Travel Capsules). We know from the Timewyrm series of novels and the Marvel comics (and the new show, I guess, but who cares?) that particularly obscure, ancient or alien languages don't translate well. This may also by why the Doctor, especially the 3rd and 4th, tend to write in English, rather than High or Low Gallifreyian. Here on Earth, we can struggle to translate languages with different constructions; Japanese is particularly difficult to translate into English, for example, because it is so subjective, with the same word having vastly different meanings in different contexts.

Where am I going with this? Well, let's look at Japanese again for a moment; there are more than a few terms of endearment for non-family that use familial terms, aren't there? "Big Brother", "Big Sister" and so on, is how we translate them, but it is the context that matters in the mouths of the Japanese speaker. Well, we know that even Low Gallifreyian is a very complex language (Ace struggles to learn to read it in the New Adventures), and it deals with a malleable 4th dimension, so it is not unreasonable to assume that context, especially for nouns, is important.

I put it to you that "Grandfather" is a mis-translation of Gallifreyian into English, likely of a term of familial endearment made from a younger "cousin" to an elder one in a family structure totally alien to our own. A better translation would likely be "Respected and Learned elder member of this House" (possibly used ironically in the case of the Doctor), which doesn't have an equivalent in English, as our familial language is based on groups assembled for the generation of children. Oh, yeah, children don't exist on Gallifrey, the inhabitants are loomed as young adults. So when Susan calls the Doctor "grandfather", that is the TARDIS translation circuits doing their best to put her actual words into something the humans around her can understand.

Miniatures Finished: Dominating the table

I'm back on the Doctor Who miniatures train, mostly just out of a desire to do something with the collection I already have, which has kind of languished as a "side-side-side" project for a long time. Also, I briefly worked at the most famous FLGS in Melbourne (yes, that one), and picked up a box of the Warlord Games Who minis, The Dominators.

Although it's generally considered a sub-par story, The Dominators at least have an interesting look, though I had to take some liberties with painting them to make them pop on the table. On the right is The Director, an obscure Time Lord character from the Cubicle 7 Doctor Who RPG, a converted Reaper Miniature.

Fantasy Football IV

I do enjoy doing these, as it lets me bring attention to characters I really like but who may not be as well known as others, or to take a character out of their existing context to try something new with. The reason these are so long between versions is that I'm not actively looking for characters, but rather, they occur to me as I'm watching or otherwise working on other articles for this blog, and they go on a list until I have the five I like to do for each. Rules remain the same as previous entries, I'm considering recruits for a theoretical superhero team to battle evil. The team needs balance, and a range of abilities, but also the personalities can only clash so much, too much of the wrong kind of ego will throw off the balance.

Adam Warlock (from the Jim Starlin run)

Although I'm rarely big on high power-level characters, but there is something charming about the classic Adam Warlock and his all-powerful Soul Gem. Warlock can perform amazing feats, but fear of his own power, and possibly becoming an evil god, keep him in check and force him to fight rather than simply obliterate all before him. Warlock has an unbending will that dives him as well, which would lead to his downfall if he didn't surround himself with dissenting opinions and people who looked at the world a lot less seriously than he does. With his cosmic status, Warlock is also able to see the "big picture" in a way many can't, which can make his actions inscrutable, but always for a higher good.

Batman (as played by Adam West)

No, I swear this isn't a troll, I've been thinking a great deal about which Batman I would want on any theoretical team, and it's this one. Yes, The Animated Series still has the 'best' version of Batman, but the Adam West incarnation has something that most others lack, a focus on intellect and problem-solving over karate chopping mentally ill people in Halloween masks. Sure, sometimes the programme takes an odd tack at this, but Batman's role with the police is that of an advisor, very much a precursor to the concept of The Mentalist or Psych. Despite the mythology that has been built around the character, Batman is just a man who's pretty decent in a fight, his true greatest asset is his mind, especially when surrounded by strictly more 'powerful' heroes, so why not have the version of the character most focused on their mental acumen?


Rando Yaguchi (from Shin Godzilla)

What's this, a politician? What good is he going to be in a fight? Well, here I'm linking more of Henry Gyrich from the old Avengers comics, as the official liaison between a super-team and the government, and, well, good fictional politicians are few and far between. Yaguchi is competent, humble and not so far ingrained in the system that he is inflexible, which is the strength by which he comes to be defined. When confronted by the impossible, in the shape of Godzilla, Yaguchi risks his political career by being flexible enough to embrace unorthodox solutions from iconoclasts and outsiders. That sounds like exactly the guy I'd want advocating for the team of people with random powers who have a history of punching the problem away whilst wearing spandex. Sure we could just nuke it from orbit, but Yaguchi is just asking for one chance with the costuming wearing weirdos.


Red Guardian (from the MCU)

I love him and want to see him get his own solo series on Disney+ at some stage. Red Guardian has always been one of those characters who is better in concept than in execution, that is, until David Harbour put the costume on. From the "Karl Marx" tattoos across his knuckles to the absolute insistence that he fought, and beat, Captain America once, Red Guardian almost stole the entire film along with my heart. In a team, Red Guardian fills the Flash/Hawkeye role of technically being actually useful, but mostly needed for the levity they bring to the dynamic and general humanity that helps ground the aliens and gods around them. Whilst not the strongest fighter, Red Guardian can hold his own against foes like Taskmaster and never gives up, even when coughing up his own blood on the floor and in a giant flying base falling from the sky. Fight on, comrade!


Princess Star Butterfly (like, three episodes before the end of the series, I guess?)

She's a little weird and a little wild, but this extra-dimensional Princess is a powerhouse to be reckoned with. From Narwhal Blasts to Warnicorn Stampedes, Star's magical abilities are more combat-oriented than most comic wizards, but she does show a grasp of magic as a discipline that is deeper than one would think of a teen possessing. Star is a fighter from a long lineage of warrior princesses, not psychically overly strong, but an accomplished brawler who can mix magic with punches better than most. It also bares mentioning that Star is capable of great compassion, as when she attempts to make peace with the monsters in her world, and great sacrifice, as when she is willing to never see Marco again to save the multiverse from magic gone awry. A great hero and a valuable addition to any team. 

Superhero Media: Dragon Ball - Episode of Bardock

Ok, this is gonna be a quick one, as Episode of Bardock is all of twenty minutes long, and there's not much to it. Somehow not dying along with most of his species and his planet, Bardock is flung back in time to the era of Freiza's grandparent, Chilled, somehow before the sayains or tuffles evolved? But there are some slug aliens I can't remember the name of and they have healing goo, which is somehow linked to the healing tanks the Frezia army uses? Ok, so diving into the lore and "science" of Dragon Ball is always a bad decision, but the origins of the Sayian race and how they came to work for Freiza come up often enough that it still kind of bugs me. Turning briefly to my ongoing theories on the generation of the Frost Dynasty however, I will note that Episode of Bardock supports my concept of each new generation being more powerful than the last. 

So Bardock is the first Super Sayian, huh? Well that's pretty neat, and does tie in with the idea that certain Sayian families have a monopoly on the power, at least in the main timeline. Think about it, aside from Broly, only those of the Vegeta and Bardock lineages have ever ascended to the level of Super Sayian in the main universe. Interesting, huh? I'm sure there's a fan essay to be had there for someone more committed to that sort of thing than I. In a twenty minute special, however, Bardock only gets to be Super Sayian for a few minutes, which is more than enough time to defeat Frost and hopefully not create a time paradox because I assume King Cold has already been "born"? I mean, the Time Patrol does pick Bardock up in the games, so there had to have been some kind of shenanigans along the way. 

Probably the best description of Episode of Bardock is "non-essential", there's nothing in it for any but the most die-hard fan, who plays all the games, watches all the programmes and probably even plays at least one of the card games. I myself had some "Mysterious Masked Sayian" in one of my Dragon Ball Super CCG decks back when I played, so the character is around if you look for him, but isn't currently essential to the main story. Then again, the short run-time of Episode of Bardock makes it perfect to get a little taste of DBZ in a short period of time, and at least the animation is decent, even if the story is pretty poor. As for me, it's on to bigger and better DBZ outings.

Miniatures Finished: 15/07/21

Thanks to the series of 2021 Melbourne COVID lock downs, I've had plenty of time to paint recently, and superheroes have been a great distraction from Star Wars Legion and rounding out some Kill Teams.

Jack O Lantern: After taking a look at how this was painted, I just had to take other swing. Much happier with the new result, even if it's a tad less bright.

Junkpile: Also completed for some Cyberpunk gaming, this X-Men 2099 antagonist is a nice, chunky model and the basic colour scheme was actually pretty fun to do. A little rust effect on there and he's table-top ready.

Mongul: I've wanted this guy since reading "For the man who has everything", and I finally got some paint on him. I much prefer Mongul over Darksied, so I'll be sure to get him on the table when the opportunity presents itself.

Bossk: I've got a friend who likes to run every crazy idea I have off on his 3D printer and I get the pleasure of painting it. Naturally, when I started doing Club/Work Star Wars Legions armies, I had to have the Robot Chicken version of Bossk.

Mysterio: As with Jack O Lantern above, I didn't much like my work on Mysterio and took another swing. The newer GW glow effects paints made getting a good result on this character pretty easy, and now he pops a lot more than he used to.

Dusk: The Peter Parker version of Dusk for those wondering, for that "Death of Spider-Man" campaign I keep stalling on because of COVID keeping me from wargaming. Another easy paintjob, but I've loved this character since he appeared in the "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" comics and I'm glad to finally have my own.

Superhero Media: Swamp Thing (2019)

A high-budget, high-concept television adaptation of Swamp Thing? Sign me up! I had heard nothing but praise for Swamp Thing, and the occasional lament that there would be no second season, so when I was able to get the DVD for a reasonable price, I jumped on it. I'm not so naive as to expect that the programme would be heavy on existential spiritualism and the magical realism of Alan Moore's run on the comics, but I was hoping for more than I got. Ok, so Gotham isn't an adaptation of the GCPD comics and Lucifer is nothing like the Vertigo series, but both at least manage to be interesting in their own right. Swamp Thing is so generic, except for the presence of Swamp Thing himself, that I felt like I had seen it all before, and usually done better. The town of Marais is rotten to the core, full of secrets and under the thumb of a powerful man with a dark past. Oh great, I was really hoping for, yet another, take on what Twin Peaks did the best version of decades ago. Yes, the Swamp Thing costume and preference for practical effects are nice, but not enough to hide the flaws. 

Because Swamp Thing burns money every time he's on screen, the protagonist of the series is Doctor Abby Arcane, played by Crystal Reed, who is competent in the role, but distractingly beautiful. Look, I know it's television, so they hire beautiful people, and yes, I know beauty is no indication of intellect, but I'm getting to the stage where I want to see more "average" looking people on the screen, you know? Heavier or less conventionally attractive people being the villains is dull and overplayed, I'd like something else now please. Most of the series' narrative focuses on the hunt for Swamp Thing and the conflict between wanting to "save" him or to mine him for the cure for everything ever; it serves well enough, even if most of it boils down to conversations about what's happening because the budget doesn't stretch too far. There is the germ of a good idea in Swamp Thing, but it's buried in generic plot and typical television tropes that make the whole experience pretty bland to watch. The entire series is only ten episodes, but it could have easily been cut down by half and still get the same amount of plot in. 

I probably shouldn't, in retrospect, have watched Swamp Thing so soon after Man-Thing, as the former plays like an attempt to do the latter, only seriously, which doesn't work. Hell, the big reveal at the close of the season, for the second season that will never happen, is Flouronic Man, but, you know, played seriously. What, was Kite Man too busy? Also, Blue Devil is in this programme, at least kind of? There is a character who almost becomes a recognisable version of Blue Devil by the end of the series, but he doesn't really interact with Swamp Thing, so it seems like another wasted opportunity. Here's the thing, the compartmentalisation of the DC/WB/CW programmes has been a good thing in the past, giving us a breadth of tone and not bogging anything down with too much continuity, but I think not slipping Swamp Thing in with something else hurt it. So much time is given over to "but what is this thing?" moments, that someone going "there's a guy who can fly and shoots lasers from his eyes, I think we can handle one swamp guy"; again, I'm looking for brevity here, as the series just keeps repeating itself and other series. I don't feel it's a real shame that we won't get more of this Swamp Thing.

Superhero Media: Mighty Med

As I pretty much only watch three things on Disney+, being superhero content, Muppet content and Duck Tales, my "suggestions" are pretty homogeneous most of the time. When Mighty Med popped up as a suggestion, I did a quick IMDB check and decided that I would give it a go, even if it wasn't strictly my kind of thing. After stumbling, by accident, into a secret superhero hospital, Oliver and Kaz, two comic loving high school students, are recruited to help out, "Saving the people who save people". As a concept, Mighty Med (also the name of the hospital) is pretty solid, and it works well for the most part, but the programme is a Disney XD tween sitcom at heart, and rarely rises beyond that level of writing and acting. Not that the actors, especially the younger ones, are anything but competent, but the shticky writing and groaner jokes place a limit on how "high" the programme can reach. There is a particular critical mindset that "Disney Child Actors" tend to be of a certain, lower, quality, but I can say that Bradley Steven Perry (Kaz), Jake Short (Oliver) and Paris Berelc (Skylar) do well with the martial they're given and Cozi Zuehlsdorff (Jordan) is a fucking brilliant talent and she deserves much better than her career has given her so far. 

Setting the series in Philadelphia was a stroke of genius for Mighty Med, as the city is plain enough to not be iconic, and tends to be a pretty "dead" area in terms of superhero fiction. So as much as the world of Mighty Med is self-contained (to an extent, we'll come back to that), it could easily be dropped into any number of superhero settings, if you wanted somewhere for your players or characters to be able to go to get patched up. Whilst having two comic book fans working with superheroes sounds like it could be exhausting, Mighty Med doesn't go to the well of obsessive knowledge of continuity being the answer too often, making the times it does surprisingly satisfying. Also makes me wish My Hero Academia used that trope better, but now's not the time to complain about that again. In terms of characters, Might Med does well enough, but there's not many I'd want to adapt across other than Oliver, Kaz and Skylar, with many of the heroes being pretty generic and uninspired. Patton Oswalt, of all people, has a twice recurring role as "The Exterminator", a retired villain, now just "an exterminator", which is funny, but probably not worth watching all 50 episodes for. 

Despite it's flaws, I don't think I wasted my time watching Mighty Med, it's good enough for what it's trying to be and enjoys the occasional moment of transcendence. Without the strong core cast, it's doubtful that it would be as good as it is, but if you've already got Disney+, checking out a couple of episodes is probably worth your time. The characters continue in Lab RATS Elite Force (the follow-on to Lab RATS as well, which enjoys a crossover with Mighty Med), which I may cover at some point, but given that only Berelc is doing much these days, could we maybe get a new series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Hear me out on this one, get back now adult Caz, Oliver and Skylar, do some hand-wavy retconning so that it was always in the MCU, only now they're in college as Medical Students. MCU Scrubs. Though hopefully without the problematic sexism and homophobia that Scrubs had. Do a 10-episode run for Disney+ and see how it goes, it could well have legs if done right. And if you can't work Zuehlsdorff's character back in, give her her own show, she could be the next Anna Kendrick with the right vehicle.

The LXG Cinematic Universe

Ok, this one will be something of a "broad strokes" approach, as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is already a bricolage of other works loosely held together with narrative, so it doesn't really need any help in that regard. Since writing about both the divisive Sean Connery film and and the cult Alan Moore comics on this blog, I have been surprised to learn just how devoted some fans are to the film and how genuine the regret that it never spawned a sequel is. Whilst I'm not enthused to the same level as some, I do regard the LXG film in a more positive light than most and perfectly understand the desire for that bit more of a media that you love, so here's my short list of suggestions to get you going in that direction. For the sake of brevity, I'll be looking at film and television that features the main cast of LXG, rather than branching out into the broader world presented by the comics, but by all means check out some classic Fireball XL5 or The Avengers (the British television version) if you are so inclined.

So we're all pretty much agreed that the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula is about the best film version of the story, right? Yes both versions of Nosferatu are also excellent, but as far as a straight adaptation goes, Francis Ford Coppola got it bang on, with the right amount of sex and gore to slide into LXG with minimal effort. Personally, I have fond memories of the 1997 Mini-Series of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Michael Caine as Captain Nemo, but that could be down to a particular scene in which Caine beats Brian Brown savagely. Certainly, Caine bears little resemblance to an exiled Indian prince, but most adaptations of the original text have this issue. In the 1980s, Richard Chamberlain did a couple of Alan Quartermain films that are about as good as one may expect, but still lean heavily on Colonial assumptions and can be a little uncomfortable to watch in these, somewhat more enlightened, times. '90s Kids will remember Jonathan Taylor Thomas, well he did a Mark Twain adaptation entitled Tom and Huck, which I haven't seen, but honestly looks pretty pedestrian. 

Ok, who's left? Well, Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde have been adapted only less frequently than Sherlock Holmes and Dracula, but there hasn't really been a good modern version, and the 1931 film tends to still be the best option, if it is a little hokey by today's standards. Similarly, Claude Rains  is about as good an Invisible Man that you're likely to find in the correct cultural milieu, even if the character isn't quite the same. There is a 2009 film, Dorian Grey which is, honestly, a train wreck, but I feel that suits the tone of the version presented in LXG? Shall we not bother with Moriarty? I mean, for tone the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes series is appropriate, but he's such a non-entity in LXG that I bet you can't even remember who kills him in the finale. Alright, enough of this nonsense, on to the regular nonsense we concern ourselves with around here. 

Superhero Media: Power Rangers RPM

Last Power Rangers content for a while, I promise, but RPM is a doozy. I'd honestly say if you can make the commitment to thirty two 20-odd-minute episodes, then Power Rangers RPM is worth checking out, if only for a look at what can happen when a dedicated team does the absolute best they can with the material. Set in an alternate near-future, where humanity has been all but wiped out by an evil AI named Venjix, the last human city, Cornith is defended by the Ranger Operators, aka, Power Rangers RPM. Much like the last series I covered here, Lightspeed Rescue, YouTuber Linkara covers this all in a lot more depth than I will if you want to go give him a few more views. What differentiates RPM from other series in the Power Rangers franchise (aside from being set in an alternate universe) is that the crew behind it elected to write the best version of the programme they could, shoot their own scenes rather than just recycle Super Sentai footage, and have an overarching narrative with character development. Then they found out they had to adapt a comedy Sentai series about transforming cars. Somehow though, RPM works. 

Yes, this is a Power Rangers series, and even I got sick of the episodic monster fights and repeated transformation sequences, but everything else is about as good as children's television gets short of the Gravity Falls/Adventure Time watermark. A lot of it comes down to the cast which includes Eka Darville (Jessica Jones), Rose McIver (iZombie) and Olivia Tennet (The Lord of the Rings) before they really hit, along with talented people like Milo Cawthorne, who sadly never broke out himself. Cawthorne plays Ziggy, a repentant criminal who accidentally takes on the mantle of the Green Ranger, and as well as being a great character to watch, his interplay with "Dr K" (McIver), inventor of the Power Rangers in this setting, is brilliant, and it's no shock that the pair later married and collaborated on a series of independent films. Just watching some of the action-light episodes, one can see the effort that is being put in to the programme, an effort that is only held back by the framing of the Power Rangers narrative. 

I'm more forgiving of the goofier parts of Power Rangers than most non-fans, but in the latter half of RPM, I found myself playing Switch or getting a tea during the fight scenes and only coming back to see the character interaction. RPM may well be the best written and acted Power Rangers ever made, but it's still Power Rangers and the interesting stuff needs to put aside from time to time in order to sell more toys. Again, I feel that the programme is worth your time, if you can get to the good stuff through the chaff, Venjix gets one of the all-time great villain deaths, Dr K is a character for the books and the episode where the characters dissect the tropes of the series is masterful, if a little on the nose at times. Although the nice, round, ten year mark has passed for RPM, I'd be up for seeing where these characters ended up as they tried to put the world back together, there is a tease that the villain may not really be dead after all. Forget trying to adapt the original run, get all of these people back, most are still acting and slap together 90 minutes of reunion and action. I'd watch it.

Superhero Media: The Venture Bros. - Season 4

You know The Venture Bros. has you hooked partway through the fourth season when, Sergeant Hatred, a reformed villain and recovering pedophile, is the emotional centre of an episode. By the time the season closes, with Brock running against the clock to prevent the death of his surrogate family, The Venture Bros. is no longer just clever and funny, it's somehow one of the best series on television. No, really. The same progamme, the same episode, that features a wonderfully gross running gag about what a sex move called a "Rusty Venture" is, brings together the core cast in a way that would define the next few seasons, and is genuinely heartwarming as mutated fly-women vomit acid on everyone. The first episode of season four is a time-jumping soft reboot in which the cast are reshuffled into new roles whilst a group of Nazis are trying to get Doc to extract Hitler's DNA from a dog and clone them a baby Hitler. If any of that throws you off, then how did you even get this far? 

For those handful of tragic nerds that read my blog, season four of The Venture Bros. gets the deep lore going with a look back at the formation of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, as well as expanding the origins of several characters, slowly peeling back some of the layers of mystery that exist in the setting. However, by far the best decision Doc Hammer and Christopher McCulloch made with this season was increasing the role of Shore Leave, a one-joke character of cringy gay stereotypes that is somehow the funniest person in every scene he's in; even if his only line is "Sphinx!" Part of it is the vocal talent of Doc Hammer pushing into almost offensive territory, only to loop back to pastiche and that many of the "worst" lines are delivered whilst the character is blowing away ranks of goons. Interviews with the writers tend to indicate that a lot of the script is improvised, and watching some of the ensemble scenes, I can believe it, but it really works because McCulloch and Hammer are so in-sync creatively that everything fits together, even the conversations about how "sad" a stripper's breasts are. 

Are you watching this series yet? Seriously, get on it, the DVDs are pretty affordable and it pops up on AppleTV every now and then. I'm starting to lose track of how many friends I've induced into The Venture Bros. fandom by slipping it on at the end of a Movie Night or as a party was winding down, even when I jumped in mid-season and spent the next hour explaining to drunk people why Captain Sunshine's butler was asking Hank to smear lube on his thighs and buttocks. In many ways, The Venture Bros. is the victim of timing, being a little too early for the streaming boom and too late for 1990s late-night cult animation. Trust me, if the programme was on Netflix and tagged in suggestions for people watching Rick and Morty, it would be huge. So until such time as The Venture Bros. gets the love it deserves, get those DVDs, block out a weekend and take a journey into the ever strange, sometimes repulsive, but always compelling world of Hank and Dean. There are no apologies for being what it is or how good it is, so it's only fitting that the last words of this season are "Fuck you!"

Superhero Media: The Umbrella Academy - Season 2

Either I wasn't paying too close attention to the first season of The Umbrella Academy, or the programme got enough better in season two to become what is honestly one of the best superhero television productions ever. Fleeing the apocalypse after having rescued Vanya, Klaus, Luther, Diego, Ben, Allison and Number Five find themselves in 1963 Dallas, days before the assassination of JFK. Spread out over a few years, Five has to get the family back together, prevent another potential apocalypse and find a way for them all to get back to 2019. The series opens with a full-blown World War III happening days after the assassination, 1960s era Soviet soldiers fight their way down a Dallas street until they hit the Umbrella Academy at full force, in one the the best soldiers vs superheroes sequences since the first Captain America film. The action is lighter on and more "low-rent" in the rest series until the finale, but this draw-in moment, plus a perfectly-executed engagement curve, shows just how much care and intelligence have gone into The Umbrella Academy. 

There are problems with the series, like The Handler and The Commission not really being all that engaging a set of antagonists without Hazel and Cha-Cha to front them, though I do like the introduction of Lila and hope she plays a bigger role in future seasons. I've been watching the Fox X-Men films at around the same time I was working through this series, and it's amazing that ten episodes of The Umbrella Academy do more with their time-displaced setting than several whole feature films. Whilst in 1963, the Hargreeves family confront issues of systemic racism and segregation, engage with the free love movement and combat conservative attitudes against homosexuality. One of the best moments comes when Allison is trying to convince her husband to travel to 2019 with her and she has to confront how slow the march towards equality has been for African Americans. It's a humbling moment for anyone watching, which is too soon undercut by a drunken Klaus. Also, how good is it that Ellen Page gets to finally play a queer character? Been way too long. 

As I mentioned in my season one review, I couldn't get into The Umbrella Academy comics when they were handed to me by a friend years ago, and as much as I'm enjoying this series, I don't think I'll be picking them up anytime soon. For some reason, this version has resonated with me and I'll be sticking to it for a while, maybe I'll look at the comics again when the series is finished. If I wasn't snowed under with lots of films and programmes to watch, I'd be tempted to go back to the first season of The Umbrella Academy and see how I felt about it now, but that's unlikely to happen any time soon. At the time of writing (August 2020), Mantic is preparing a Kickstarter for a The Umbrella Academy board game, complete with 32mm miniatures, but as they're modeled on the comic version, I think I'll be giving them a miss for the moment. I'm not honestly sure that I need all of the Hargreeves siblings on my gaming table, as their powers aren't as interesting as the characters, but a version of the younger heroes in domino masks and school uniforms could be interesting. Great superhero roleplaying fodder in this series though.

Superhero Media: Supernatural - Season 5

And here our journey ends. I know that Supernatural continues for a great many seasons, but the close of Season 5, with Dean losing everything and turning away from hunting for good, is one of the best "finales that aren't actually a final episode" in television. Yes, I still maintain that "Free The Future" is the best ending Dragon Ball has ever had and Luther should have finished at the close of the third season. For the entirety of the fifth season, Sam and Dean are in a Sisyphean struggle against destiny, soon learning that Sam is to be the vessel of Lucifer and Dean of the Archangel Michael, and that their battle will destroy the Earth. Fatalism and duty are the major themes of this season, with the brothers, Dean especially, standing for free will and humanism, even when that stand costs them everything they have. The focus of this season of Supernatural is less episodic, with plots running across several entries, though still bookended for network television. 

In what is something of a shock for an American television programme on a major network, it is revealed in Supernatural that God is absent, the Metatron has become a dictator and the Angels are on board for the Apocalypse because it will be the end of a lot of filthy humans. That's basically the plot for a chunk of the His Dark Materials series, and draws a lot more from the Apocrypha and William Blake than it does any Biblical source. Whilst I would love a big Sci-Fi/Horror production to draw its mythology from something other than an Abrahamic source, the approach that Supernatural takes is at least pretty interesting, moving away from a loving God and Biblical literalism that even Xena Warrior Princess ran with in later seasons. Another excellent choice is stripping many of the characters of power they've previously had, meaning Sam and Dean have to take on Angles, Demons and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse with rock salt and experience, rather than CGI tricks. 

In the end, the battle for the future of the Earth comes down to two guys wrestling in a graveyard, and the car that has been a feature of the programme since the pilot is pivotal in preventing the End of Days. When Lucifer and Sam are trapped in the Room Without Doors, along with Michael and an unfortunate character idea (the lost third Winchester brother), Dean is left with only Bobby and a lifetime of grief and regret. The end of Dean's story is his reuniting with an old flame from a previous season and looking for meaning in a life that has never really needed any before. This ending is perfect, a brilliant juxtaposition to the "Supernatural Convention" episode where a fan tells Dean he envies his life of freedom and adventure. One day, I may look at the seasons that follow this one, but my brief foray into Season 6 and beyond has left me cold so far, and I'd rather keep my feelings for the story and characters intact. I think it will be a while before I come back to Supernatural, but for the most part, going back over it again has been a worthwhile experience.

Superhero Media: Arrow - Season 7

Oh man, they really should have canned this after Season 5, which wasn't great, but at least had a compelling villain and a decent ending. Fresh from being uninteresting in Season 6, Diaz is back again to be utterly not menacing as he talks about how much he hates Oliver for no reason. Oliver, meanwhile, is in prison, having made the deal to be put away with the Star City Mayor at the end of the last season so that his team would not be charged for their vigilante activities. Later in Season 7, there is some legitimately interesting discourse about the role of vigilantes within a traditional law enforcement structure, but before that we have to get through the writers of Arrow hitting every prison cliche while they get the chance. Man, I am so tired of Arrow. 

Rather than the flash-backs we were finally done with, the writers decided that what we needed was flash-forwards, featuring Maya, Oliver and Felicity's daughter, who is evidently more relevant in Season 8 and the "Crisis On Infinite Earths" crossover. On the subject of the crossovers, I won't be complaining about them moving forward, as they've finally become available as separate entities, so I can check them out at my leisure. As for the future sequences and Maya, neither really does it for me, and come across as more of a failed attempt at a "soft reboot" than anything genuinely interesting. The return of some characters and actors from the earlier seasons only add to this aura of the programme being worn out, especially as some are certainly only there because they couldn't get those who went on to actually be famous. 

For a few episodes, Team Arrow are folded into the Star City Police as their own deputised response force, which creates some genuinely interesting friction and hearkens to the Adam West Batman; I'd be keen to try an element like that in a campaign I run at some stage. However, before that can really land, the team are wanted for murder because we need to rush to the finale. What's really odd is that Oliver is taken away by the Monitor at the end of the season, despite the fact we have one more of these to get through. I've heard that the programme becomes more about Maya, and I'll have to admit that the only reason I will bother with season 8 will be because I've come this far and don't see the point in stopping now, even if Arrow should have stopped years before it got this far.

Superhero Media: Big Hero 6 The Series - Season 2

I'm glad I didn't have to wait too long for more of Big Hero 6 - The Series, I watched it all in a few days, so I may have to go back for a more in-depth viewing at some stage. If I were one of those reviewers who insisted on breaking down my thoughts into sound bites, I'd say that the second season of Big Hero 6 isn't quite as good as the first, but the truth is that some elements are actually better, even if the overall effect isn't quite as grand. Part of the issue is that the first half of the season builds to a finale with an excellent twist, but then the actual season finale isn't quite as good, even with the introduction of "MegaMax". Now, this is actually down to season two being made so that it can be split into two seasons for syndication, the difference between a "Production Season" and a "Broadcast Season", but that knowledge doesn't really help the second finale still feeling a little rushed. 

There is something of a conflict in this season of Big Hero 6, between an attempt to develop the characters and wanting to keep them in recognisable forms. New costumes, weapons and characters are welcome, for the most part, but it isn't until the latter episodes that Baymax gets more dialogue than his catch-phrases and other references to the film. Everyone, including Baymax, does develop a little though, which is a nice touch for what could just be a cash-in cartoon based on a successful film, which I put down to much of the original creative team coming back. Hiro gets a pre-romantic relationship with a new character, Go-Go finds empathy with a villain, Fred plays surrogate father to Mini-Max, Wasabi confronts his fear of public speaking, Honey Lemon has to be more violent than she would wish to fully utilise her new gear and even Baymax has to renegotiate his role within the team when Base-Max (a supercomputer) is introduced. 

Despite a few missteps, I feel that there's plenty left in the tank, especially if the crew are willing to keep building on the development done in the second season. I think a new villain or a twist on the formula is really needed (the older characters graduated) to keep Big Hero 6 running for more than one more season, as most of the loose ends have been wrapped up so far. Seriously, if anyone can help me get 28mm versions of these characters, let me know (I have a lead on Globby though), I really want to get more than my two versions of Baymax on the table. I'm honestly shocked that this incarnation of Big Hero 6 doesn't have more traction in the superhero community, the setting is fun and visually engaging, the characters have a good spread of personality and the tragedy that drove the team in the first place doesn't overshadow the whole affair. If you're still sleeping on this one, get on it soon, there's a lot to enjoy and plenty of fodder for gaming. 

Thinking Out Loud: The Art of Fighting

Big nerdy confession time; I think about superheroes fighting quite a lot. Not just the act of them fighting, but how they fight, how it would look and what, if any, martial arts style they would use. As more and more characters from comics are being adapted for screen, I find this topic on my mind more and more. Now, I'm not martial arts expert, I enjoy my Wuxia and have dabbled with both Aikido and Wing Chun, but my interest is certainly more in the aesthetic camp than the practical. I'm enough of a nerd that I know, off the top of my head that Captain America is trained in Judo, Daredevil uses "some Jujitsu with New York Dirty Boxing thrown in" and in Batman Begins Bruce uses mostly the Spanish Keysi Fighting Method. It takes some exposure and a keen eye, but different methods of fighting (martial arts and such) can look quite different when next to each other on film, so I do think that having each character having a unique fighting style makes for a more interesting fight sequence, when it is done well. The Ip Man films do this quite well, with Donnie Yen's Kung Fu coming up against Tai Kwan Do, Maui Thai and modern Boxing, to name a few, and each of those bouts being pretty spectacular to behold. 

Now, superheroes can do things an ordinary person cannot, which means their fights can move well outside the realm of physical limits. However, someone like Superman or Thor doesn't have a lot of call for learning a rigid martial art (yes, Superman knows Kryptonian martial arts, but they're made up, so can be anything), but taking the time to think about how super-powers may influence fighting style can be a fun exercise. As an example, X-Men character Angel Dust is a MMA fighter, so casting Gina Carano was pretty smart, and we all got to see how super-strength and martial arts training can be a nasty combination. Let's cover Batman before we go any further, because if I don't, "that guy" will complain, you know who you are. Spanish Keysi Fighting Method was a decent choice for the Nolan films, with Batman having been trained in a variety of styles by the time he gets to the League of Shadows, but were I the Fight Coordinator on a Batman film, I'd be looking a Ji Kune Do and/or Krav Maga for Bruce, as both draw on a number of older styles already. Probably much the same for the Bat-sidekicks, but I see Nightwing having more of a parkour-influenced gymkata style (yes, even though it's fake) and Batwoman pretty much purely using Krav Maga, what with being a former Marine Cadet. 

I don't feel I should have to cover Shang-Chi, but I do think the Netflix Iron Fist series made the right decision on making the Kung Lun style similar to Kung Fu, as they both originate in roughly the same area. Fun fact, I recently learned that Savate, for which Batroc the Leaper is known, has a rich history born out of a need to defend oneself from muggers and other assailants, and features stick- and sword-fighting elements. If you have more information on that, please let me know in the comments, looks fascinating. I could make this even longer than my normal articles, with ideas about how Spider-Man should move like a dancer, Penguin needing to do more fencing or Booster Gold fighting "football style" like Flash Gordon, but I think I've covered enough for now. I mean, I've got pages of these. The Phantom should know Masai wresting techniques. Wolverine should do a bit of Kendo in his moves because of his time in Japan. Bane should move like an MMA fighter because he learned as he was fighting. Ok, I'll stop now.