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.

Miniatures Finished: Centurions Reborn! (Part I)

For my Ultimate Alliance Annihilation game I ran years ago, I had a collection of "Centurions" to play as antagonists, but over the years many ended up being cannibalised for other projects. Looking down the barrel of actually being able to run my long-planned Annihilation campaign, I decided to get the idea going again.

Super-powered beings drawn from 100 worlds in the Negative Zone, many of the Centurions are not loyal to Annhihilus, but have not choice but to fight. 

 

I'm not sure if I'll be doing a full 100 Centurions, but for now I'm just repainting loose Heroclix with interesting sculpts that aren't famous heroes in their own rights. 

 

Another advantage of using old Heroclix is that they can just be kept in a box without taking too much damage and I don't mind if they're lost or broken during a display game.

Superhero Media: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

You are wrong about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 not being as good as the first one, it's actually better; better acted, better directed, better written and more meaningful, just better overall. However, because it isn't, and cannot be, as new and fresh of the first one, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 tends to get considered the lesser of the two, even when it is so clearly the better version of the allegory both are going for. Aside from being solid films that are fun to watch, pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe series is about something in a big way, at least so far as waves 1 to 3 go. Spider-Man is about the struggles of coming into adulthood in the modern world, Doctor Strange is about humility, Thor is about becoming your own person rather than taking the role chosen for you, etc. Obviously, almost to the point of bluntly, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is about family, especially finding a surrogate family when you lose or leave your original family, either through death or abuse. In this, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may well be the Queerest superhero film outing since X-Men 2. Strap in, folks, this is another politics one. 

One of the major criticisms often leveled at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, that I'm willing to give any time to, is that the horrid abuse that Mantis suffers is never addressed. There is an element of truth to such a thought, but when contrasted with the narratives of overcoming abuse and trauma that Starlord, Gamora, Rocket, Yondu and Nebula undergo, any kind of "pro-abuse" or "anti-mental health" reading of the film is difficult to justify. Being a therapist, I don't recommend not seeking out professional help, but the Guardians' alternate take on a family creates for them a safe space in which to repair their empathy and form healthy relationships. Also, the film ends no more than hours after the defeat of Ego, Mantis' healing journey will take a lot longer than that, we'll see more in Vol. 3. The raising of Baby Groot by the entire team is great to behold, with the idea of a non-traditional family sharing roles to support a child's needs and development being so subtle and matter-of-fact that I doubt any who may be critical of such an idea would even realise what they were watching. Of course, like every family, the Guardians aren't perfect, having their share of conflict and violated boundaries, but the support they show for one another is amazing. 

Only a couple of days after meeting Mantis, Drax is ready to sell his life for hers, wonderfully demonstrating the difference between perceived and actual empathy; Drax cares for Mantis, despite how cruel all the things he says to her come across as. The cathartic fight between Gamora and Nebula, culminating in Gamora realising that she too, played a part in the abuse of Nebula and the pair starting a journey of healing together is simply amazing, especially as this would play out in later films. Also, how did Micheal Rooker not get a "Best Supporting Actor" Academy Award nomination for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? I don't expect he would have won or anything, but seriously, the journey Yondu goes on in this film is heart wrenching, with his final sacrifice being reminiscent of Superman The Movie's "The son becomes the father, and the father becomes the son" refrain. Whilst on the topic of Yondu, Marvel, can you please release the version of Jay and the American's "Come a Little Bit Closer" you used in the Yondu escape sequence for me to buy? That would be awesome. When I first saw Tromeo and Juliet at a cult movie night, I would never have believed that the same director would deliver one of the most heartwarming and thoughtful films in the MCU, I'm glad the Alt-Right Twitter dogpile was finally revealed for what it was and that James Gunn will be returning to this series in the future. 

"In these times of hardship, just remember, we are Groot."

Drokk the Law!! - Part V

This week looked like an exciting chance to get some new players to try out our modified version of the Mongoose Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, but real life intervened and it was left to myself, Andy and Sam playing a couple of games with new gang builds again. Oh well, hopefully that changes soon. Both Andy and myself have been busy building and painting more residents of Mega City 1, and digging up some existing models to proxy teams we want to play. For me, I had a Street Gang list I wanted to try out and a Demonic Cabal that was mostly part of one of my Warpath Firefight armies. Sam tried the Judges with a Lawmaster to get a handle (no pun intended) on the bike rules, and Andy got to put his fantastic Ape Gang on the board for the first time.

As promised, Andy has been hard at work on his table, mostly Knights of Dice kits, for more of a Mega City look than the Sci-Fi habs we've been using from the club box.

Andy is keen to populate the streets a little for our games, with some spare models from his collection and other 2000 AD stuff he's working on. We tried some basic AI for the civilians in the first game (Street Gang Vs Judges), but it really didn't work terribly smoothly, so we may try the Mob rules from the Mongoose rules next time.

In an attempt to try something different, my Street Gang is light on members, but most have decent armour, the "Sports Armour" that puts them, in terms of defense at least, on par with the Judges. The trade-off is that I have fewer members and I can't afford the best weapons on the Punks. But hey, I had these broken Blood Bowl figures from work and they turned out great when I gave them guns.

After having seen the stats on the Lawmaster, both in terms of movement (up to 30" a turn) and the fearsome Bike Cannons, Sam wanted to try one out in a game. Thanks to vehicles in other skirmish games like Necromunda and Empire of the Dead, I'm honestly not keen on the idea of adding anything much bigger than a Powerboard or Jetpack to my infantry skirmish game. The rules on how many turns of how much of an angle make the Mongoose rules a bit tricky, but thankfully the bikes move more or less like faster infantry, so after one turn of fiddling about, it worked alright.

Unfortunately, Sam has only been playing against my Renegade Robots so far, who being "Illegal" can be shot at without making an Arrest attempt, so when coming up against a Street Gang, he was on the back foot having to push up the board and not shoot anything. One of my Punks did get arrested, but I found I had the initiative in the firefight, so was able to pick off the Judges with some lucky rolls. Being able to target the Judge and not the bike in Melee was a huge advantage, and I'm not sure that the mobility and heavy weapon were really a good trade-off for another Senior Judge on the table.

The second game was probably the most hilarious we've had so far. My Demonic Cabal was set up to summon their Class II Pact (the big winged guy) in the first or second turn, and then let it do the work, because the Cabalists are pretty rubbish in a straight fight. The Apes are probably the most mobile gang (except possibly Sky Surfers), able to move over vertical surfaces and across gaps without making jump checks.

Facing four fast apes with deadly Spit Guns, I decided to go for broke attempting the summoning ritual with my first turn. At first, I thought that the Ritual may need some serious re-working to function with the alternate activation we've been trialing, but the rules stipulate that a Cabalist must perform at least one Special Action in the same turn and be within 2" of the Grand Warlock to contribute, so it worked fine, really. I can see this being more interactive, with enemies trying to pick off the Cabalists that haven't added to the ritual yet during the turn.

The ritual itself, however, is really wild. You roll 1D10, add the Grand Warlock's Will and Level (+4), minus 2 for attempting a Class II Pact, then roll a D10 for for each Cabalist contributing, with them having a 50/50 chance of adding or subtracting 1 from the roll. There's a few options on the table, but basically you want a 14+ to get your demon and be able to control it yourself. My failed summoning, however, got a Minor Entity that would change sides based on a roll-off at the start of each turn.

What followed was a perfect example of how silly the game can be when it wants to. I managed to win control of the Pact every turn for the rest of the game, making use of the fact it could move 10" and ignore terrain to charge each Ape in turn and pick them off with tooth and claw. Andy hadn't bought armour for his gang, so it was pretty quick work.

I don't really feel that either the Cabal or the Apes got a good play-test this week, as the game just kind of went off the rails. It was really fun, but I'm hoping that both are a little more consistent in a proper campaign, and I'll need to make a Major Pact as it turns out you can accidentally summon that one too. I managed to get my hands on some Mongoose Judges of the World, but I'm not sure what to do with them just yet, so I'll keep plugging away at the Robots and other gangs for now.

Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z - Super Android 13

Contrary to the opinions of many Dragon Ball Z fans, I don't enjoy Super Android 13 all that much, probably for the exact same reasons that many do enjoy it, just to be contrary. Whilst on a shopping spree in what I'm assuming to be Central City, the Z Warriors are attacked by two new Androids and a fight ensues for the better part of an hour. For me, it's a problem of motivation, in that the Androids are simply programmed to destroy Goku and friends, and lack too much personality beyond that. It's not that I don't enjoy the action and fighting of the DB series, but i do like a little more context than "we're programmed to hate you"; Androids 13, 14 and 15 don't even have the rebellion against their creator that 17 and 18 did to give them more to be. So, basically, Super Android 13 is one big fight, but at least it's an interesting one?

Again, I don't feel that there's all that much to Androids 13, 14 and 15 beyond the typically interesting Toriyama design work, but the fight is well choreographed and seeing Vegeta, Trunks and Piccolo get their licks in is nice, even if Goku gets the biggest moments. It's a bit of a shame that Gohan is still relegated to the sidelines, but that will change from the next film on, so I can live with it here. As always with the Movies, Super Android 13 doesn't really fit into the overall DB canon, as there is no time where all of the characters are alive, in the same place and not fighting someone else already when the events depicted could happen. Unlike many other entries, however, some fans bend over backwards to make Super Android 13 fit in to the broader narrative somehow. Honestly, I feel it's down to the fact that the film is just a big fight that enamors so many, as well as just the design of the main antagonist in his "Super" form. 

If you're of the kind to find the filler episodes of DB uninteresting, Super Android 13 may just be the outing for you; there's plenty of violence, not much dialogue and the whole thing is done in under an hour. In fact, as a superhero fight reel, the film does pretty well, even if most of the DB characters have essentially the same powers when you boil it down. For those curious on the ongoing quest for more DB miniatures, Androids 13, 14 and 15 are way down the list, below quite a bit of more obscure and less popular stuff, as, again, I just don't find them all that engaging. Perhaps some kind of "Android Force" game in the distant future, or an elite squad for a Red Ribbon force, but certainly not a major want for me. Now, the next film in the series? I'm pretty excited for.

Miniatures Finished: Last of Marvel Crisis Protocol

So this is the last of the Marvel Crisis Protocol I'm likely to do, unless the store decides to do more store characters or I get some work on commission for the game. I'm still not sold on the game, or the figures, especially considering the new scale and high price point. For example, the Heroclix MODOK from the Mutant Mayhem set is under $20 and is the same size as the Crisis Protocol version. Just sayin'.

Captain America and Crossbones in front of a newspaper stand.

I think I'll have to get a few more games of Crisis Protocol in at some stage, didn't follow my first too well and found the rulebook not well laid out, but people tell me it's a lot of fun. 

Superhero Media: Unbreakable

It must be at least a decade since I last watched Unbreakable, and I admit that the poor quality of the later films in the series, Split and Glass, had lessened my remembrance of this film. When I finally sat down to watch Unbreakable, however, I was truly impressed by just how good the film really is, as a stand-alone. Like many who went through a Film Studies major in the 2000s, I was, for a time, fond of criticising the patchy work of M. Night Shymalan, and whilst he's never really lived up to the potential he showed early on, Unbreakable remains a competent and well-executed film. The story begins when David Dunn, an out of work security guard, is the only survivor of a high-speed train wreck, walking away without even a scratch, only to find himself shortly confronted with Elijah Price, an eccentric Comic Book collector with a rare condition that makes his bones extremely brittle. Price is convinced that superheroes exist and goes to great lengths to demonstrate to Dunn that he is a superman unaware of his legendary power. 

To call Unbreakable a "slow burn" would be fair, calling it a "mood piece" may not even be far off the mark, as the pace is slow and the focus is more on Dunn trying to save his career and marriage than heroics of any form. Not to say that the film fails to be engaging at all, just that when I watched it between two Spider-Man films, there was a bit of cognitive whiplash. As much as I enjoy web-slinging, superhero fights and feats of strength, the slower pace and more grounded approach of Unbreakable was a welcome break, and the film is very enjoyable in its own right. Price's rationalising of the uncanny with comic book logic is played brilliantly, sounding just as dumb as these things do to outsiders, but still following their own form of logic; the scene where Price considers rows of comics to solve his conundrum is pretty much the best visual representation of how my brain works you will ever see. 

So is there room for a David Dunn in my Ultimate Alliance games? Probably not, unless I find the perfect miniature already being made somewhere. Neither Dunn nor "Mister Glass" are great characters in their own rights, or particularly original, but it is those same broad strokes that help make Unbreakable so compelling. There is plenty of room in the genre for more grounded and sober takes on the idea of superheroes and super-powers, so long as not everything is as slow a burn as this version. On the rare occasion I do ask for more "adult" superhero fare, as the genre is primarily for children, it is work like Unbreakable of which I am thinking, contemplative, human-centered narratives that meditate on the idea of the superhero, not just the blood and sex fests of "adult" comic lines. It's kind of a shame that the follow-ons to this film were so poor, as it does drive the more casual viewers away, though, thankfully, the film nerd audience have gone back to reappraise this first outing for Dunn. Well worth a look if you're only usually watching the MCU or Arrowverse.