Superhero Media: Pokemon Detective Pikachu

Given how much buzz there was about Pokemon Detective Pikachu around the time it came out, the fact that it is essentially never spoken about now outside of Pokemon TCG players is frankly bizarre. I'm not super up to date on the Pokemon games, having dropped off after the Red/Blue era and only played a little of a couple of others, but one of the strongest elements of the franchise is the depth and richness of the setting, even if it doesn't always hold up to close scrutiny. As someone who is not a super fan of Pokemon, the best part of Detective Pikachu is still how it makes a real world populated by real people and plenty of pokemon running around doing their thing. To my recollection, none of my favorite "team of six" pokemon are even in the film (Venusaur, Beedrill, Fearow, Nidoking, Raihcu, Cloister), but I get a little thrill seeing some of what's there. I love the little Joltics scampering around on electrical equipment and the Bulbasaur sequence was enough to even get my mother to sit and watch a bit as she passed through the room. I'd prefer if Mewtwo was less... fleshy? But he still looks pretty great in the action sequences. 

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Detective Pikachu is a sequel to Mewtwo Strikes Back, that's some Unbreakable/Split level callback right there. Sure, the only character that crosses over is Mewtwo, but that's the upside of a cinematic universe, not every character needs to be in every film for it all to be linked; sadly this means Ash is out there somewhere, but maybe we'll get lucky and see Jessie and James in the future? The ending of Detective Pikachu leaves a bit to be desired, with the wrap-up being overly convenient and the lack of a decent pokemon battle disappointing. Even when watching it in the cinema, I kind of assumed that the human/pokemon that our protagonists had met along the way would team up to take on Mewtwo, but it never happened for some reason? Seems like a missed opportunity. I know that too much violence would boots up the rating, but what's Pokemon without the battling? Hopefully any other films in the series will remedy that somewhat. At it's core though, Detective Pikachu is a buddy cop comedy/coming of age film, and on that score, it really delivers.  

Plenty of films have done the "interrogate the mime" scene, but I don't recall any having done it quite as well as Detective Pikachu, putting a shockingly dark twist on it for a family film. Ryan Reynolds may actually be a comic genius, as there seems to be no one he can't bounce a scene or joke off, not that Justice Smith is any slouch either, doing great straight man work and still making his presence known, not an easy task. Hell, Bill Nighy is in this film and he's, at best, the third most interesting actor, what a cast! I was really hoping that Detective Pikachu would smash some records, not just because I enjoyed it, but because I want to see more films in the Pokemon universe. There is so much richness and variety to be had in the setting that to not use it seems like a waste of great IP, even outside of the game narratives, which can be a little obtuse at times. Seriously, if you're not a fan, look up the Uknowns sometime, strange stuff. Even with the weirdest stuff put aside, however, there is a world of stories to be had in the Pokemon world, and hopefully we'll get to see some more before too long.

Danton - Part II

When last we left off this juvenile screed of pop-culture miscenallia that I wrote one fateful week in the last year of high school, I was wondering why I bothered to keep these scraps of loose leaf for almost two decades. And I'm still wondering. But at least I'm getting this down and I'm finding that cathartic.

Danton 2: Stone Cold

After the events portrayed in Danton, Dracula has been able to rebuild Paris, but the rest of France has descended into chaos, leaving Paris as a city-state. Simon Schama travels back in time and raises an army of mercenaries to conquer France under his sovereign dictatorship. Robespierre returns after becoming the new evil ruler of Otherworld and incites the Parisians to rebellion against Dracula's rule.

Dracula turns to the Justice League for help, joining them for a time. The Last Ninja returns to finally avenge his brothers against Robespierre and allies himself with Dracula and the Justice League. Doctor Strange joins with a coalition of demons to resurrect Danton's soul into a robotic body, christening him "Robo-Danton". Doctor Strange and Robo-Danton travel to fight a guerilla war against Schama and his Battle-Toad bodyguards. After a pitched battle, Schama and Robo-Danton fight in single combat while Doctor Strange raises Schama's fortress to the ground. Robo-Danton realises that he cannot defeat Schama whist he wears his battle-armour, so self-destructs, destroying the armour, though Schama survives the attack.

Meanwhile, the justice League put down the rebellion, forcing Robespierre to retreat to Otherworld, only to discover that Zombie Jesus has raised an army of undead and is now conquering the West coast of France.

Superhero Media: The Shape of Water

In the months leading up to the release of The Shape of Water, I had a habit of referring to the film as "X-Men Origins: Abe Sapien" as a bit of a joke, given the director and the visual look of the monster. Sadly, The Shape of Water isn't strictly a prequel to the Del Toro Hellboy films, but there are enough similar elements that they could certainly be in the same "cinematic universe" if you like to pretend. Which I do. Strictly speaking, were I required to place the film in a specific genre, it would be Melodrama, for quite a number of reasons, but there is more than enough superpowers, shady government labs and communist spies for it to suit your Silver Age needs. Elisa is a mute woman working as a cleaner for a shadowy lab in the employ of an American Intelligence agency, getting through the days with her friend Zelda and neighbour Giles, when she encounters, by chance, a strange creature and her life changes forever. I've noticed that people's acceptance of the romance in The Shape of Water can vary quite a bit, but there's no doubt that the film is magnificent in many ways. 

As you may expect, I'm not going to cover too much more of the film here, rather I'd like to discuss the elements which can work for your own superhero stories that can be found in The Shape of Water. As mentioned above, just making "the creature" just be Abe Sapien, or a member of the same species, from the Hellboy films is pretty easy, but let's not forget the other creature we can work from, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Monsters as superheroes (or villains) isn't anything new, from comic versions of Frankenstein's Monster to characters like Etrigan and Ghost Rider, hell even the Mummy as portrayed by Universal Pictures is there in obscurities like Shadrac and The Living Pharaoh. Whilst I've never done the "monster team" thing myself, it is a legitimate take on a Superhero group, and someone I used to game with even took a swing at an update on it (using the Terminator, Xenomorphs and Predator) but he left the country before he finished getting the models together. I think with a little more work, my own collection could provide Abe Sapien, Marrina and the Creature, but I'm not sure how well that would go as a team. 

Or, just for fun, let's flip this concept around, have the monsters be the villains, but still have them working for the government. Think of the NSA or CIA, but outright evil, rather than just being kind of evil anyway, trapping monsters and cryptids and using them for black ops work. Something like the Suicide Squad, but only with Bigfoot, the Creature and Chupacabra; I'd be down for that, sounds like a fun antihero or antagonist team. Part of the reason I started making "Superhero Media" a regular feature of my blog was to cover media that wasn't strictly in the Superhero genre, but still had ideas that were worth exploring. The Shape of Water is pretty much perfect in this regard, using tropes that may, strictly speaking, be from Horror, but are certainly at home with Superheroes and suit a more grim and Gothic supers setting, if that's your bag. At the very least, The Shape of Water is a good way to sneak something more fantastic into the viewing you undertake with your partner, if they're typically inclined to avoid the kind of media you enjoy.

More 40K Superheroes (and Villain!)

Well, I thought I was done with this after the first one, but looks like I'm still going. Much like the Victorian Superheroes, I just keep coming up with ideas for 40k heroes that work too well to ignore. Unlike the Victorian stuff, however, I'm building most of these ideas when I can, because they work well with my narrative 40k games over on some other blogs I'm on. Also, I like messing with hardcore 40k-fanbois but doing stuff like female Space Marines and Ork Merchants, so this is another outlet for that, in a way.

The Avengers 40,000

When we last left our heroes, Kang the Conqueror had found himself trapped in a grim, dark future by the phenomena known as Warp Storms preventing his time travel technology from working. Unable to conquer the Galaxy on his own, rent as it was by constant war and ruled by a decaying mutant corpse, Kang chose to do what history had demonstrated to be the best course of action, assemble The Avengers! Like any era, there were heroes to be found in the wide galaxy, though they took vastly different forms to the ones with which Kang was familiar; Brunnhilde was an alien-hunting Space Marine burdened with conscience, Carol Danvers had betrayed humanity for the T'Au Empire and M'Baku fought the menace of the Orks. Gathering who he could, Kang himself led this newest incarnation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in an attempt to free the Galaxy once more.

As time wore on, Kang would find more familiar faces haunting the strange corners of the 41st Millennium, some would be welcome recruits, but others would be revealed to be enemies, old and new. Thanks in part to Kang, the heroes have arrived, but so too, it seems, have the villains. Trapped in a time not his own, Kang and his Avengers fight the good fight against hopeless odds; because that's what heroes do.

Rogue Trader Pryde, The Daring Devil, Trooper Greyson and Carol Danvers face off against Trayzen the Collector.

Rouge Trader Pryde: Kathryn Pryde was probably meant to live a normal, mundane life on her homeworld, but she had the misfortune to fall in love with a man from the stars. Quill Spartax, also known as the Star Lord, was the youngest in a dynasty of Rogue Traders, known for being brash and making poor decisions as much as his heroism and good looks. Pryde fell in love and joined Quill in the stars, going on adventures and even befriending a young xenodragon, which she named Lockheed. In time though, Quill's dangerous lifestyle caught up with him and he died on the Galactic Fringe. With no immediate family to take over the Rogue Trader Writ, Pryde had her late husband's armour adapted to fit her and became the new Star Lord.

The Daring Devil: That Aeldari and Humans can interbreed and produce viable offspring is a closely guarded secret by both races, especially since the embarrassing incident of the first Librarian of the Ultramarines. For some, however, that secret is something more; it is a prophecy. Deep in the winding halls of the Black Library, the Solitaires whisper of the coming of their greatest warrior, born of both races, the Daring Devil. When such hybrids are born, the Solitaries whisk them away for a lifetime of rigorous training and testing, and such was the fate of Mayhew Mur'Doch, the bastard son of a human soldier and an Aeldari warrior. Mayhew was a born fighter, the most naturally talented killer ever seen in the ranks of the Solitaries, whilst being completely blind. In his iconic red uniform, the Daring Devil is a legend, striking from the shadows and mowing down foes like death itself. 

Carol Danvers: No story on this one, I was just doing a Gue'vesa Kill Team and had the parts spare. I figured I may not always want to be fielding her in the Crisis Suit.

PDF Veteran Carter Greyson: Carter never wanted to fight, he wanted to save people. Born on a reasonably peaceful Imperial world, Carter volunteered for the Planetary Defense Force to help battle fires, rescue people from disasters and dig flood trenches. When war came to his sub-sector though, Carter found a lasgun thrust into his hand and Chaos Cultists in his sights, and as much as he hated it, Carter was clearly born for the battlefield. Slogging through the mud, fighting for his life, Carter continued to save everyone he could, keeping his squad-mates alive and throwing himself into the melee first, his trusty fire axe leading the way.

Trayzen the Collector: Known by many ways and many faces over the millions of years he's lived, Tanaleer Tevan, the Collector, one of the Elders of the Universe, survives well into the 41st Millennium. The disguise of Trayzen has been useful to the Collector, drifting in and out of Necrotyr society for aeons, taking interesting finds for himself whilst manipulating those around him. When a chance encounter brought Inquisitor Kang and Trayzen face-to-face, the Elder revealed he may be in possession of a way for Kang to leave the grim and dark future in which he was trapped. The two clashed and Trayzen escaped, but Kang did not forget and has since made it one of the missions of his Avengers to track down Trayzen and uncover what he has at his disposal.

Superhero Media: Justice League Doom

Based on a couple of different comic story lines, Justice League Doom covers the "nightmare scenario" of a group of supervillains (a "Legion of Doom" if you will) getting their hands on Batman's files and weaponising them against the Justice League. Whilst I tend to feel that this idea has been done altogether too often, Justice League Doom is one of the better takes, even with the limitation of the animated films. Much of the cast of Justice League Unlimited returns, so even with Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern spot and Cyborg joining the team, it has that nice feel of being familiar. As I've discussed at-length previously, as much as I detest the "Versus" culture around superheroes, I do enjoy the "wargaming" of who could take on various teams and characters and how, so characters like Taskmaster and Prometheus are something I enjoy. I also quite like Vandal Savage, who is the primary antagonist of Justice League Doom, gathering Mirror Master, Bane, Star Sapphire, Cheetah, Metallo and Ma'alefa'ak to strike back against their matched foes. 

First up, I love that it's Bane against Batman, not Joker, because Savage is smart enough to find the sane mercenary who has defeated Batman in the past, rather than just picking Joker because reasons. Like, I can believe that Bane can defeat Batman with skill, guile and materiel, rather than just hoping Joker does it properly this time around. To counter that, however, who the hell is Ma'alefa'ak? He doesn't even have a Heroclix as far as I can tell. Yes, Martian Manhunter doesn't really have a lot of "iconic" villains, but an evil take on the same character just feels lazy. For that matter, I'm not huge on Star Sapphire either, but she is one of the more "grounded" Hal Jordan villains and at least isn't as goofy as Hector Hammond or Major Disaster. Why am I not discussing the story of Justice League Doom? Well, it's not really all that important. This is a fight story, with cool battles strung together with a loose narrative, just the kind of thing ensemble pieces like this excel at. As much as I love stories where big teams deal with important issues, having all these powerful characters in the room and not occasionally "smashing the action figures together" is just a missed opportunity. 

Ok, so I do actually like the idea that Batman has plans to take down other heroes if they go rogue, it's a very Batman thing to do and creates some much-needed friction in the Justice League, something which Justice League Doom covers well. However, much like any good idea about Batman, this too has been amplified to absurd proportions, and now the fandom insists that Batman can defeat any other hero with ease. I'm willing to assume that Batman somehow finds the time to compile these files, with everything else he's supposed to be doing, but if we're buying into the "hyper competent" Batman myth, surely he stops at some stage? I can't imagine that Batman has a plan to take out a rogue Booster Gold, for example, because only his ability to travel through time is any real threat and Rip Hunter is better suited to deal with that, surely? Finally, I'm not a fan of Cyborg in the Justice League, he's not that interesting and there are far better characters that could add the much-needed diversity to the team.

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;