900 Posts - Another Milestone

Wow, 900 posts on what started as a little diversionary project to do when I couldn't do other hobby or get other writing done. I never thought it would go this far, or this direction, but this blog has been great to have when nothing much else has been happening for me, and while I probably put more effort into it than I should for the rewards I get out, it's still fun and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. Thank you to everyone who stops by to read, I hope you get some enjoyment out of my ramblings and come back for the next 100. 

And, as is tradition, a little preview of what's coming up; 

Superhero Media: Tron

Ok, so Tron is pretty far from being any kind of superhero film, but I'm going somewhere with this, I promise, so stick with me. A groundbreaking, but overly dense and mythological film, Tron wasn't the first to use CGI, but did popularise it more so than most. Looking back at how computers and networks are now, Tron is pretty  laughable, but I remember computers being magic boxes that only a few people understood or owned, so it's not much of reach if you're in the right mindset. What, on the surface, appears to be a by-the-numbers science fiction outing for children, with the protagonist transported to a new and strange land, turns out to actually be a secular treatise on messianic mythology and the use of religion by totalitarian regimes. Ok, so a little of that is probably me reading too much Campbellian Monomyth into Tron, but I've always felt there was more to this film than most are seeing, and time kind of bore me out on that one. 

Flynn, a computer programmer turned arcade owner, agrees to help his friends Alan and Lora break into the Master Control computer and find evidence of criminal activity when he is sucked into "the grid", taking on the role of a program, Clu. Teaming up with Tron and some other Programs, Clu need to escape "the games" and make their way across the grid to communicate with the users and take down the Master Control Program [MCP]. In a way, Tron managed to predict discussions of Net Neutrality and the ubiquity of tech industries like Google and Apple in how the world is run, not that it was at all deliberate or intended at the time. The only factor which enables the oppressed programs to throw off their shackles is the presence of Flynn/Clu, the "user made bits" (read God made Flesh), who can work miracles, even resurrecting the derezzed, empowering Tron to meet his destiny. Again, I've been reading Joseph Campbell and Michel Foucault for my Masters Degree, so forgive me on this one. 

If Tron was just another disappointing film that Disney released in the 1980s to try and capitalise on the popularity of Star Wars, then I doubt I'd be bothering with it, but there is something there. Be it the iconic elements of Tron, like light cycles and video games as gladiatorial combat, or the unintended prediction of a network of global computers overseen by one element grown bloated and unstoppable, or perhaps the elements of the monomyth therein, Tron remains popular with many to this day. I think there is room for something like Tron in superhero storytelling, especially when combined with elements from similar concepts like Reboot and even Super Smash Bros; many video game characters are almost superheroes already, so why not have them team up to battle evil? This idea has been rattling around my head for a while, so expect to maybe see it on the table at some point.

Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Plan To Eradicate the Sayians

Ok, I'm scraping the Dragon Ball Z barrel now, there's not much left without starting to play more of the video games, so I guess it won't be too long before I move onto Dragon Ball. Sometime around the week Goku took off in the Perfect Cell Saga, mysterious creatures appear along with a gas that is slowly killing the planet. Heading out to deal with the issue, Goku, Gohan and Piccolo soon clean up the random monsters and meet up with Vegeta and Trunks to take out the last gas generator, only to discover themselves fighting Freiza, Cooler, Lord Slug and Turles. When the final villain, Doctor Lychee, is revealed, the truth comes out that the Z Fighters have been battling ghosts the entire time, ghosts out of a machine built by an alien race destroyed by the Sayians long ago. Man, is it just me or are the Sayians getting to be like Batman's parents with the amount of stuff they've meant to have done before getting killed off? 

In terms of DBZ, Plan To Eradicate the Sayians is not great, the story is weak and it doesn't add much to the franchise, but I love Doctor Lychee as a villain and I'm going to gush over him for a while again. One of the issues with the storytelling style of the Dragon Ball franchises is that villains (other than Freiza and Broly) never really get to come back, so there always needs to be a new threat and we don't get new fights with classic antagonists. Doctor Lychee gets around that, by being able to bring back heavy hitters from the past, without leaning on the Dragon Balls or other magical loopholes. I've been crafting a character in the image of Doctor Lychee for my broader Equalisers SS4 setting, but if I could get the actual character in 28mm, he'd be a regular in many of my convention games as well. Just think about the Marvel Rising characters getting their shot against the "Super Axis" or The Legion of Superheroes coming up against the Sinister Six, that's exactly the kind of game I started writing my SuperSystem Ultimate Alliance rules to do. 

The argument can be made that Doctor Lychee is just an excuse to recycle villains and makes the fights repetitive, but I think that shows a lack of imagination. Just an example from Plan To Eradicate the Sayians, we've never seen Freiza and Cooler fight together, sure, it doesn't last long, but seeing combinations like that is a big part of the appeal of Dragon Ball Multiverse, which I also enjoy quite a bit. The post-52 series of Booster Gold does something similar with time travel for excellent effect, with four versions of Blue Beetle getting to team up and fight a team of Silver Age villains. I really can't stop coming up with ideas for Doctor Lychee in Ultimate Alliance games, like, he's pretty much a perfect match for both the Legion of the Unliving and the Black Lantern Corps without even doing anything to tweak either. I can see Nekron wanting to get his hands on the technology that drives Lychee, and he seems like a much better lieutenant than Black Hand. Alright, now to convince someone to make me a Doctor Lychee in the right scale.

Superhero Media: Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse

So, just to recap, Sony Pictures and Tristar made one of the worst superhero films in years in Venom, then turned around and put out what may well be the best superhero film to date with Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. Wow. How does that happen? Yes, very different teams worked on both films, but talk about tonal whiplash. Not having complete permission to use the Peter Parker incarnation of Spider-Man, instead the studio used every other Spider-Man they could find, and made a few more along the way. In a world where a hyper-competent and successful version of Peter Parker is a beloved Spider-Man, Miles Morales is shifting to a new Magnet School and struggling to define his own identity when he is bitten by a radioactive spider and if you don't know what that means, where have you been? Dying trying to prevent Kingpin from starting up an inter-dimensional portal machine, Peter Parker passes on the mantle of Spider-Man to Miles, who isn't even sure if he wants it; thankfully, Miles is about to get a whole lot of backup. Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir and an anime girl and her Spider-Robot are about to bring together the greatest super team ever known. 

Every frame of Into the Spider-Verse is a work of art, drawing upon several art and animation traditions at all times and all soaked with dot-shading and "Kirby dots" to create a visual feast that I can't recall any other animated feature ever coming close to. If you have a decent TV, just pause the film at random and you'll see it; I'd hang frames of this on my wall. And the way animation styles blend is simply astonishing, the fight between Penny Parker (and SP//dr), Scorpion and Peter Porker (The Spectacular Spider-Ham!) ranges from Anime to Looney Tunes to video games but doesn't miss a beat. Each character from a different art style (Noir, Ham and Penny) follow their own logic (Noir can't see colours) and it should be a mess, but somehow it works better than even the tone blending of The Avengers; seriously, I would watch 22 more of these including solo films, even just to hear Nic Cage say "real biscuit boxers" again. Drop a neon noir take on Miguel O'Hara in the post-credits scene and Spider-Man 2099 looks ready to drop in for the next one. Love every minute of this. 

Oh, did I mention that Into the Spider-Verse is also a post-racial coming-of-age story with a mixed race protagonist and complex relationship with law enforcement? Also there's a middle-aged character trying to put his life back together after his extended postmodern adolescence broke up his marriage. Want more? Aunt May wants Miles to help her set up a dating profile and there's some heavy hints that she's queer, Gwen is a ballerina in a punk band and Kingpin is motivated by a broken heart. Holy shit, this film is amazing. I had a few Spider-Man (Men?) figures in my miniatures collection before Into the Spider-Verse, but now that collection is growing, because I just have to game it at one stage.