Superhero Media: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Century

I was originally intending to review each of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century volumes (1910, 1969 and 2009) individually, but, truth be told, I only really like 2009, and didn't feel like doing separate reviews of the two I didn't enjoy. Not that I feel Century is a bad read, just that if I don't follow through to the final volume, the first two are dissatisfying. Returning from their travels around the world, the, now-immortal, trio of Alan, Mina and Orlando return to the service of Mycroft Holmes, defending England from the impossible threats that haunt the shadows of the world. Joined, at first, by Carnaki the Ghost Hunter and and A.J. Raffles, the team must, across a century of action, prevent the creation and rise of the Antichrist. Friends have told me that Century is hard to read, and that they find it pretentious, as parts are essentially extended references to things Moore has watched, read and written. There is a truth to that criticism, but as a Literature nerd, I love it. 

Much of the story of Century may not make sense if you haven't also read Black Dossier, as that story comes between 1910 and 1969 in the broader narrative, and is referenced heavily in 2009. The through-line of fighting the Antichrist, however, is centred in Century, culminating with Mary Poppins (aka GOD) descending from the sky to turn the Beast into chalk. Oh, and the Antichrist is Harry Potter, feel like I may have buried the lead on that one. In Century, Harry is the "Moonchild" brought into the world to force the next cycle into darkness by Oliver Haddo, a semi-immortal occultist, whose adventures peel off from the books at some point, ending with Harry becoming aware of his nature and going on a murdering rampage through Hogwarts. If you're a diehard Potter fan, I'm sure it's pretty disgusting, but again, still way less offensive than JKR at this point. The heroes are not the best, they lose and fail repeatedly, but win out in the end despite their failings as individuals; it is certainly an interesting read. 

The prose story in Century is "Minions of the Moon" in which Mina (in her superhero guise of Vull the Invisible), the Galley-wag and his Dutch Dolls travel to the Moon to prevent a war between the Selenites and the Amazon Women on the Moon. I love comics. I'm not as enamoured with "Minions of the Moon" as I was "Alan and the Sundered Veil", but the brief interlude where Mina as Vull discusses the death of Stardust the Super Wizard with Captain Universe (probably not the one you're thinking of) is amazing in all the ways that make the comic nerd in me happy. I'd love a story expanding on Mina's team of superheroes, but we'll get to that soon enough. As a continuation to the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Century may leave some fans wanting, with even less heroics and fewer iconic characters, but the series remains ripe with brilliant ideas for superhero games of all kinds. If you can stomach the deep-dive into the mind of Alan Moore, the series is very rewarding, even if it never quite gets back to the levels of the first two volumes.

Danton - Part IV

You know, when I started writing these up again, I really had no idea just how much of it there was. I mean, I wrote this all in a few dull History lessons in 2004, that's long enough ago that it's pretty fuzzy for me, so I guess I suspected I didn't do all that much of this? And we're only halfway, well halfway-ish, so I hope you're not as sick of this as I'm getting.


Danton 4: Napoleon Ball Z

While Danton and company were defeating Robespierre in Otherworld, France was conquered by Napoleon, through an alliance with Chewbacca and his army of lawyers. Napoleon became Emperor by finding the Lance of Longinus and forging a series of rings. Now he seeks to become immortal by finding the Dragon Balls; to achieve this he dispatches Inspector Clouseau. Meanwhile Blanka/Danton returns from Otherworld, when he sees what has happened to France, he travels to Paris and challenges Napoleon to single combat, be prize being leadership of France. With the powers of the Lance of Longinus and the One Ring, Napoleon could easily defeat Blanka/Danton, but instead prolongs the combat, making a fool of Blanka/Danton before blasting him to Russia with the Kamehameha technique.

Burning for revenge, Blanka/Danton seeks out allies to fight Napoleon; he stumbles upon Simon Schama, who has led the Mongolians to victory across Asia, forging a massive empire. After striking a deal, Schama dispatches Sniper Wolf to assassinate Clouseau; he fails miserably and is killed by Link. Schama's army marches across Europe, making allies against France. In fear, Napoleon visits a coven of witches, who tell him that "No man of a woman born" can kill him. Now over-confident, Napoleon leaves his army to its own devices, awaiting the final battle in his Volcano Death Fortress.

Without their leader, the French army is quickly defeated by Schama's hardened veterans. Blanka/Danton and Schama confront Napoleon, unfortunately Clouseau has returned with all of the Dragon Balls. Napoleon wishes himself immortal and proceeds to brutally kill Blanka/Danton. Despite his advanced battle-armour, Schama looks doomed, until, at the last minute, Doctor Strange returns from the Hell Dimension in which he was trapped. Strange opens a Dead Zone into which Napoleon is drawn and sealed forever. Schama and Doctor Strange establish democratic rule in France.

Superhero Media: The Shadow

I picked up a DVD of The Shadow on a whim after being reminded that the film existed by an internet video. I had seen the film many years previously, but didn't really remember much except the living dagger and invisible hotel, so when I put it on one afternoon I was in for a big surprise. The Shadow is pretty goofy and very Golden Age in it's approach, but with that comes all the violence, moral ambiguity and mix of magic and science that made Golden Age comics such a trip. Before becoming The Shadow, Lamont Cranston is a warlord in the badlands of rural China, having slipped into violence and unrelenting rage during the Great War and just walked until he found a place where those things led to profit. Encountering a holy man in the mountains, Lamont learns to harness the evil side of his nature and use it to fight for good, to become, The Shadow! With powers of suggestion, mesmerism and two massive guns, The Shadow brings justice to the dark corners of New York City. 

Yes, The Shadow stars Alec Baldwin, from when he was young and sexy, if you can believe that, but the rest of the cast is pretty awesome to behold; Tim Curry, Peter Boyle and Ian McKellen all have roles, as well as a bunch of great Asian-American actors from your favouite Cult films. David Lo Pan anyone? Oddly, the main antagonist, Shiwan Khan, is played by John Lone, never did too many films in the West, Rush Hour being the only other of his that I have seen. Oh, and "Magical Descendant of Genghis Khan" is a brilliant bad guy and now I'm eyeing off some 28mm Mongols as antagonists; but why not long-lost sons of other dictators like Norman Bonaparte, Caligula Jr or Albert Hitler? Throw in an anachronistic nuclear bomb, some brilliant Art Deco sets and a couple of classic pulpy death-traps and The Shadow is a heck of a lot of fun, if nothing else. Yes, the '90s CGI is pretty terrible now and the film is dated in other ways, but for its time, The Shadow is one of the better examples of the genre. 

I know I keep saying this, but I really need to get around to doing some more Pulp Gaming. I already have The Shadow, Green Hornet, Mandrake and The Phantom painted, and I have The Woman in Red and The Spirit somewhere undercoated. Also I just picked up some plastic WWII Germans in greatcoats for baddies, so I'm pretty much set if I just get my arse into gear. Many of the Golden Age and Pulp comics are pretty dated, being very racist, sexist and homophobic by current standards, but the settings and adventures can be tweaked to suit quite easily, just look at Atomic Robo or The Marvels Project. I find pulp can be a great way to use more of your miniatures collection for Supers as well, some Fantasy Undead at a a creepy temple, WWII tanks and infantry as antagonists, even your sci-fi aliens as "invaders from Mars"; anything goes, so just throw it in and see what works. And if you have the chance to check out The Shadow while you're prepping games, all the better. 

Miniatures Finished: Comrade Dinosaurs

I have been slowly expanding my collection of Bot War miniatures, focusing mainly on my Red Star dinoborgs, because who doesn't love communist dinosaurs? I'm yet to really crack winning with them on the table, but one of my regular Bot War opponents is pretty cutthroat, so maybe it's not all me?

Glorious revolutionary dinosaurs march forth to expand the Warsaw Pact!

Pacheoborgs, hard-headed and tough, but sadly not great in the game. From Trader's Galaxy, of course, but with machine guns from an Osprey sprue.

TREX and the Stegoborg are the backbones of the force, though Rex is a little slow, it is a new army and I have more to figure out.

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.

Drokk the Law!! - Part XIV

The quarterly game with Andy rolled around last weekend, and whilst I didn't quite get the painting done I wanted, it didn't really matter, as playing fun games with a friend is much more important that what is and isn't painted to my usual standard. It still bugs me though. We got two games in, Scrawl War and Demolition, and whilst I did win both, it was usually pretty close and both games had a good narrative flow. 

Andy's terrain on my new mat, plus some NWA club stuff for low-level cover. I'm not a huge fan of how "bitsy" it looks currently, especially when compared to my Necromunda, SuperSystem or Nocturnal tables, but hopefully it comes together in leaps and bounds if we're only playing every few months. I'm also hoping that next time Brutal Cities is doing a print run, I'm doing better work-wise and can justify a bundle. 

The first game saw Andy's Brian Ansell Blockers (Street Gang) versus my Yakuza (Mobsters) in a Scrawl War, a scenario where gangs have to spray tags on certain places. It's a fun and objective-based mission that requires movement and cleverly punishes just rolling over your opponent with gunfire. I won't transcribe the entire mission here, but basically there's four Scawls and whoever controls the most at the end of the game wins. So even a gang that runs off due to casualties can win if they got more Scawls done. 

I was up against it from the start, as Andy's Blockers had a Heavy Spit Gun (basically a LMG) and more long-range firepower than my Yakuza, who are more built for close and medium range fights. My gang pushed up through cover as best as possible, but my Blitzer went down the second he poked a toe out, and I didn't do a lot with return fire. Andy had two Scawls before I could get my gang into position to take even one.

The game turned around for me when I actually gave up and did something silly. My gang leader is armed only with a Katana, and often doesn't get to do a lot, so when I had nothing left to use, he broke cover to slice an enemy Scrawler in half. Andy loves a good scrap, so his leader leapt out of a window to clash blades with mine, but my rolling won out and I claimed my second scalp for the game. Of course, his spree was ended on the next turn by the Heavy Spit Gun, but it was a fun run while it lasted.

Emboldened, I pushed forward with my remaining gangers, taking out the Heavy Spit gun with a lucky shot throw the window with a pistol, so that my Punk could run out on the balcony for the last unclaimed Scawl. At this point, Andy was down to one model, and would have won if he had failed a Will To Fight (morale) roll, but the stubborn bastard just stuck it out, enabling the Yakuza to convert a third Scawl for the win. 

Game two was Demolition, with the City-Def trying to prevent known robot terrorists, Blood in the Machine, from destroying a statue. In order to complete the mission, the robots have to perform a total of 8 Special Actions in contact with the statue, which can be done by any number of models across different turns. Though they're outnumbered and out-gunned, all the City-Def have to do is drive the Robots off to win. 

My initial plan was to have Vendi and Call-Me-Kermit cover Haro2-Goodbye while he completed the mission, relying on his armour and 7 Hits to get the job done as fast as possible. However, I underestimated the City-Def's spit guns and trigger-happy tendencies, and Haro2 was low on Hits after just two lucky shots. 

In order to get the City-Def out of cover, I sent Haro2 straight across the plaza and into melee, where he's pretty much unstoppable, and picked off any City-Def he could get his claws on. Meanwhile, the other Robots converged on the objective, alternating between laying down covering fire and planting the bombs. With three robots on the statue, I won pretty quick, especially with Haro2 taking down all but one of the City-Def members.

This gaming day was mostly about just catching up and seeing where projects were at, next time we'll put in a little more planning and try a few new things, maybe even do the campaign stuff. I have a few more models on the painting table for Dredd, so expect to see another one of these before too long.

Superhero Media: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

The story of William Moulton Marston, his wife Elizabeth, their girlfriend, Olive Byrne, and their collaboration to create Wonder Woman is the stuff of comics legend, but the story is often played for sensation, rather than being allowed to stand on its own. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is one of the most sensitive and accurate retellings of the story, even if it does focus on William Marston more than the other characters and skims over some of the more interesting elements of Golden Age Wonder Woman comics. Having been in a polyamourous relationship for years, it is pretty common to find yourself being gawked at and asked plenty of invasive questions, and that was the 2020s, not the 1930s, but I do find myself wishing that the "sex stuff" wasn't the major focus of the story. Another failing, at least to my eye, of Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is that the invention of the polygraph is covered as a side note, and no time is given to Elizabeth Marston's later rebuking of the device as useless for intended purpose. 

Those quibbles aside, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is masterful, a brilliant film that touches on many themes yet still serves as an excellent biography. Perhaps more so than any other creator of the Golden Age, the Martsons and Olive led fascinating lives, through the Great War and being early professors of psychology as the discipline moved from out of philosophy at the academic level, only really Anarchist Wizard Alan Moore can challenge this trio for an exciting life story. Wow, can I please get an Alan Moore biopic? That sounds pretty amazing now that I'm thinking about it. Talk about the "sex stuff" being some of the least interesting parts of the story. As to that same "sex stuff" though, the few minutes of Bondage, Pornography and Submission in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women are much better, healthier and more realistic representations of such than several hours of EL James adaptation can manage. There are better ways to learn about Bondage/S&M/BDSM if you want to know more, but for what this film is, I honestly expected much worse than what I got. There is a moment of triumph when Olive ties Elizabeth up for the first time that eclipses even the creation of the polygraph. 

As a documentary on the history of DC comics and the origins on Wonder Woman, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women leaves much to be desired, but as a piece of history, covering a man and the women he loved, and loved him, and loved each other, it is uniquely wonderful. Something that I struggle with when reading a lot of fiction is I don't see a great deal of alternate relationship models, such as ethical non-monogomy, in some ways it tends to be even less represented than queer relationships; I mean, how many couples in television series don't end up with a child, just for example? The fact that Professor Marston and the Wonder Women didn't get a broad cinema release pretty much anywhere doesn't give me a lot of hope for broader representation of alternate relationship models. Amazing how little has changed in that regard in nearly one hundred years. While we're at it, let's bring the bondage, discipline and submission back to Wonder Woman, I'm sure there's plenty of room for it in the next Gal Gadot film. Until then, this film is well worth your time to track down and enjoy.