Superhero Media: Spiderman

Emissary from Hell, Spiderman! Yes, you may know Spiderman (note the lack of hyphen) as either Japanese Spider-Man or Spuidaman, depending on where you first heard about it, but the title is Spiderman in the opening credits, so I'll be sticking to that. Our story begins when aspiring professional motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro is caught up in the centuries-old battle between the Planet Spider and the Iron Cross Army, led by Professor Monster. After the death of his father at the hands of the Iron Cross Army, Takuya encounters Giaera, the last survivor of Planet Spider, who gifts the young man his blood so that he may become Spiderman! With his new suite of powers, as well as the supercar Spider-Machine GP-7 and the transforming spaceship Marveller, Takuya is ready to battle evil. Up against him are the Iron Cross Army, with legions of soldiers, Amazoness and her increasingly-terrible wigs and a plethora of cyborg monsters known as Machine Bem. It's pretty fucking amazing.

Like most Sentai and Toku, Spiderman is pretty repetitive, and you really don't need to watch all 41 episodes like I did to get the feel of it, but it really is a lot of fun if you can stick with it. Although Super Sentai technically predates Spiderman, this series codified many of the themes and tropes that would become the standard in the genre, such as giant robots, transforming vehicles and enemies growing giant in the climax. Although you can jump into pretty much any episode of Spiderman and not have to worry about continuity, there is some development over the course of the series, such as the Iron Cross army suspecting that Takuya is Spiderman, Spiderman working with INTERPOL and a recurring Youth Detective Club. Should you just want to check out a few episodes of Spiderman, the first four and last two do quite well, with a surprisingly solid climax that sets an injured and desperate Takuya against the last vestiges of the Iron Cross Army. It's pretty damn solid given the genre and era.

Despite being reasonably obscure outside of Japan, the internet has, almost miraculously, brought Spiderman back into the cultural consciousness. Aside from appearing in the Spider-Verse comic crossover event, Spiderman has been referenced in cartoons, video games and is set to appear in an animated film. Naturally, I've had one in 28mm for a while, though I'd be up for an Amazoness and Professor Monster if I could get them, and it's an easy conversion if you want someone other than Peter Parker filling out the red and blue for a few games. Hopefully, Spiderman is here for many years to come, and Takuya takes his rightful place alongside other alternatives like Miles, Gwen, Miguel and Ben, because he really is just as good and deserves more exposure. It may seem like a big ask, but go track some Spiderman down and give it a watch, trying to push past your cultural expectations and aversion to rubber suits and see what's there. It's not a great programme, but it's bloody interesting and certainly good enough to fill up a slow afternoon.

Ultimate Alliance - China: Part VIII

Hidden deep in the wilds of China's mountain ranges, the massive underground complex which housed The Most Perfect Science Division hummed like a city, for indeed it was. Intended to preserve superior Chinese technology in the event of global catastrophe, the staff of the complex would often not leave for years, telling friends and family that they worked overseas or on isolated ships. The complex housed everything the Party deemed necessary to a productive and healthy life, including an arboretum and a small zoo, including mostly endangered species native to the mainland. Children occasionally were born and grew up in the complex, though those sired without prior approval were taken away to be raised by the state and the parents suitably punished for their indiscretion. The management of the complex was difficult and expensive, but seen as utterly necessary for one of its outputs; the complex provided China with superhumans.

From multiple iterations of the Crimson Dynamo to many of the now all-but-defunct Great Ten, The Most Perfect Science Division had provided their nation with the superhumans needed to compete with the Western "heroes" for decades. Despite having gained his powers through training and study, Most Accomplished Perfect Physician was well familiar with The Most Perfect Science Division, and had no need to follow the broad route lines painted on the floor to help people find various divisions and facilities. Walking along with Most Accomplished Perfect Physician was a sextet of generals and high-ranking Party members, mostly engaged in a circular and pointless argument about the current superhuman conflict in Hong Kong. Every member of the group had a strong opinion they felt the need to voice, though Most Accomplished Perfect Physician noted silently that none had a genuine idea of how to resolve the crisis.

A final, long corridor brought the group to one of the most secure labs in the complex, though technically it existed on its own separate branch that tunneled deep into the mountains. Although the majority of the labs in the complex gave aesthetics over to functionality, this particular one could only be described as deliberately brutalist, calling to mind incarceration more so than research. In many ways the lab was a prison, designed to resist all but the most powerful assaults from both without and within, as it was this very lab where the most powerful members of the Chinese Superheroes were created. The current occupant, the latest incarnation of the Crimson Dynamo (occasionally known as Socialist Red Guardsman) was the focus of the impending meeting, though fixed as he was to a repair rig, he made for a less than impressive sight, despite the bulky armour and ominous red glow.

After a moment of reverent silence, the argument of the generals reached fever pitch, squabbling like children over the need to deploy the new Crimson Dynamo in Hong Kong to stop Inframan and settle the riots once and for all. To describe the option as "nuclear" was not unwarranted, with the latest few iterations of the Dynamo being atomically powered with technology reverse-engineered from observations of the Atomic Robo; it was, in many ways, literally a walking bomb. Accomplished Perfect Physician noted that any scientists, technicians and other civilian personnel had faded to the far side of the room so as to not catch the attention of any of the Generals, having learnt from past mistakes that being the voice of reason was only something that worked in terrible American cinema.

In a style typical for compartmentalised bureaucracy, with which Accomplished Perfect Physician had become intensely familiar since joining the Great Ten, the generals weren't arguing over weather or not they would deploy Crimson Dynamo, that had already been decided, the man/machine hybrid would be going in. The sticking point was as to whom would be taking responsibility for the destruction and all-but-guaranteed civilian casualties that would result from a major superhero fight in a populated area. If things went wrong, like Dynamo getting out of control, the Western superheroes getting involved, or a nuclear incident on what was considered Chinese Soil. Watching the argument circle in the reflection of the Crimson Dynamo's face-plate, it took Accomplished Perfect Physician a moment to register that the 'pilot' had woken up and was silently watching the proceedings. They locked eyes through the red-tinted porthole for what felt like an eternity.

Superhero Media: Luke Cage - Season 2

What can I say about the second season of Luke Cage that I haven't covered already with other Marvel Netflix efforts? It's about three episodes too long, it wastes the potential set up by the first season and it's clear the writers were more interested in making a Crime Drama than a Superhero programme. And it's a real shame, as the first season of Luke Cage was a big deal, full of big ideas and it had a big impact, so that the second doesn't really take many risks or try and do much more than round off plots left hanging is truly disappointing. The overriding 'theme' of the season is the fate and soul of Harlem, and who will be the new king, but honestly, it really should have been about getting the Heroes for Hire together. And I'm not just saying that because I am a big comics nerd, the best parts of this season of Luke Cage are the team-ups and hints that something like the Heroes for Hire are coming.

The new villain for the season is Bushmaster, sadly not the guy who's half-snake, a member of the Yardis criminal gang out of Jamaica, and whilst this adds an interesting element of a new Colonial perspective of Blackness, that the decision was made to have him be almost as strong and tough as Luke really undercuts the conflict. There are some really smart scenes where ordinary criminals try clever ideas to get around Luke's invulnerability, and because the power is so straightforward, the fights look great on-screen. But whenever Bushmaster turns up, it's just two guys punching each other again. Not that a low-powered beat up can't be fun to watch, the fight with Misty Knight and Coleen Wing and some drunks in a bar is one of the better in the season, and feels like a lead-in to more, but it isn't. Similarly, the episode where Iron Fist turns up to help is probably the best Danny has been outside of The Defenders, but it's just the one and nothing else happens. I know that with budgets and contracts and all, Heroes for Hire was unlikely to happen, but it just seems as if it would have been much better than this.

Even musically, the second season of Luke Cage pales to the first. Yes, there is still plenty of great African American music, but not much in the way of Jamaican genres, and the cleverness is gone. Remember how the first season coded Hip-Hop as "bad" until Luke takes down a drug den with "Bring da Rukus" blasting? Yeah, none of that here, just some kind of mixtape of Black music that really doesn't feel thought-out. Given the distance of time that I now have from the Marvel Netflix experiment, I'm wondering if the team behind Luke Cage already suspected that the writing was on the wall and that there would be no third season? The set-up of Luke as the new crime boss of Harlem has some merit, but feels forced compared to the sheer joy of the Heroes for Hire segments. Again, I'm not all that sad to see the back of this series, as it didn't seem to be going anywhere that I want to follow, and the first season remains "in amber" for me to enjoy whenever I feel the need. Just one more of these to go, now.

Thinking Out Loud: The Big Bang

Look out folks, I'm back on my Stardust the Super Wizard bullshit, so this one's going to get pretty esoteric. For those who are new to this blog or just skip over everything that's not a film or television review, Stardust is the titular character from an almost-forgotten Golden Age writer, Fletcher Hanks. Think Golden Age Superman with less of an ethical framework and no real limit to his powers. Stardust has enjoyed a strange popularity in certain corners of the internet, being truly a unique character who's Public Domain and kind of like Superman if you squint hard enough. The entirety of Stardust the Super Wizard is available online if you look, and is worth reading at least a couple of issues. Fair warning, Fletcher Hanks himself was a terrible person, so if Family Violence is going to upset you, don't dig too deep into his personal history.

Most retellings of Stardust, with one notable exception, tend to make the character more heroic, which is pretty interesting, because although he certainly 'fights evil' in his own comics, it would be hard to call him a hero in the traditional sense. Stardust turns up after the damage is done (or at least after it has started) to punish the perpetrators, often lethally, sometimes fixes the damage, if he feels like it (or if Hanks left enough panels) then zooms off into space once more. Alan Moore chose, in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to paint Stardust as a villain, defeated by Captain Universe (probably not the one you're thinking of) and imprisoned for all eternity like one of his own victims. But that's not really what I wanted to get off my chest today, I'm here to answer an important question (or, at least, important enough that I think about it way too much), just what is Stardust?

In the classic comics, Stardust is referred to as a "man", who has gained his abilities through mastery of science, but in that he may not necessarily be human. For starters, Stardust is huge, only shown to be shorter than characters referred to as "giants", and his physique is often exaggerated and vaguely inhuman; almost like something trying to look like a human but not quite getting there. Uncanny valley, if you will. In the webcomic, Super Wizard Returns, the author posits that Stardust is some kind of living solar entity and the physical body that interacts with the universe is merely some kind of projection or shell for consciousness. Well, at least I believe that's the intention? There's room for interpretation there. That idea kind of works for me, as it opens up ideas of characters like Solaris, The Tyrant Sun and even Great Old Ones and the C'Tan from Warhammer 40,000. With the reading of Stardust not being heroic so much as brutal and borderline malicious (or at least capricious), his being an alien entity impossible to comprehend makes a certain amount of sense, right?

So let's borrow some ideas from Warhammer 40,000 and Lovecraft's inheritors, and posit that Stardust is an intelligence born of a star; something so removed from human experience that we simply cannot understand each other and with a power scale nearly immeasurable. After eons of existence, the intelligence becomes aware of other life in the universe, but all attempts to make contact result in immolation and destruction. Perhaps there is a moment or two of pure awe in the mortals this being contacts, before they are killed by its very presence, and it comes to crave that devotion. After better observation, this being comes to understand something of temporal and three-dimensional existence, though its logic is flawed, and it crafts itself a suit, a skin of starmetal. With a name it has chosen for itself, Stardust, the solar being sets out to get the awe and worship it craves, but how? Well it just so happens that something new has entered human culture, the Superhero.

Stardust enters the human world in the wake left by Golden Bat, Superman and Namor, seeing the love, fear and awe that they inspire with their heroics; and he wants a piece of that action. Of course, Stardust doesn't understand any of the nuance of what he sees, so his approach to crime-fighting is direct, brutal and with little consideration for justice, it's like a child playing cops and robbers. At first the other heroes of the Golden Age admire Stardust, as he turns back tidal waves, returns gravity to the planet and deflects asteroids, but soon doubt creeps in. Stardust's violence and wholesale murder begins to escalate, actually raising tensions between nations due to his preference for the United States and drawing the globe closer to a second World War. The time has come to do something, but can even the combined power of Earth's Mightiest Heroes stop this alien monster birthed in the heart of a star?

Superhero Media: Kolchak - The Night Stalker

Oh hell yeah! I was randomly flicking through SBS On Demand one afternoon when I found that the entirety of Kolchak The Night Stalker was available to watch. I was house-sitting at the time, with a couple of older dogs, so something fun to binge whilst the elder napped on my lap was a good way to fill the afternoons. Although Kolchak is a classic cult series for a number of good reasons, I do have to warn that as it was made in the 1970s, there is plenty of sexist and homophobic material in the programme just as a matter of course; it didn't stop me from enjoying it, but I can see it being more offensive to others. Carl Kolchak is a reporter for the Independent News Service in Chicago, who has the rotten luck to keep encountering the supernatural and sublime while he's chasing stories. Despite having exactly the kind of budget you'd expect for a niche broadcast television production of the era and dealing with flying saucers, vampires and underground lizard people, Kolchak is somehow one of the most grounded and sober series about the supernatural I've ever seen.

For those seeking a superhero connection for all of this, Kolchak isn't all that far removed in concept from comic characters like Doctor 13 or even Constantine, or if we're prepared to go wide, I can see shades of Carl Kolchak in Spider Jerusalem. I think what makes Kolchak so enduring and engaging even now is how smart it manages to be at times, such as in an episode where an alien is killing people, the alien is invisible to human eyes, so all interactions are filmed with clever staging and light-play to create the impression that something is lingering just out of sight. It honestly works great, much better than a rubber suit would ever have. Of course, there are plenty of rubber suits and dodgy masks, but some great direction and interesting locations make the finished product greater than the sum of its parts. As a fan of classic Doctor Who, I have a high tolerance for cheap pre-CGI effects, but things like the Magma Dragon in The Caves of Androzani still really disappoint, so I was pleasantly surprised as how restrained Kolchak allowed itself to be.

For most of your games, Kolchak probably won't be providing a great deal of inspiration, but I do recommend watching it for just the sheer joy and interest of the series. Although comparisons can be readily made to later programmes like Supernatural, The X Files and Project Blue Book, the wry humor and 1970s cynicism make Kolchak a pretty unique entity in the history of television. Yes, it's dated and there are a few "yikes" moments to the modern sensibility, but the quality is solid and the acting is perfectly on-tone for what's being presented. Also, there's a few guest spots by actors famous for M*A*S*H, which is pretty cool. Naturally I'm now considering a Kolchak-style character in my vampire skirmish game, but who knows when I'll be able to get that off the ground in any serious way, so don't bother expecting any of that happening in the near future. Seriously, this is a great series and well worth your time to track down and watch.

Dream Match - Round I

A while back, I wrote an article ("Deaf Rattles") about the 'Versus' culture in comics and nerd media and the YouTube series Death Battle and the various issues I end up having with the concept. In that article I recall an old issue of Dragon magazine that proposed and worked through a battle between Raistlin and Elminster and how that may go down and how much I enjoyed the concept then. Of course, my article hardly set the internet on fire and the whole Versus culture continues unabated.

Rather than complain though (well, maybe a little), I've decided to be the change I want to see in the fandom and start doing my own version of versus battles here in my tiny and quiet corner of the internet. Hopefully my regular readers will enjoy what I'm trying to do here and we have a bit of fun along the way. Unlike the big sites, I'll be trying to focus on indy and lesser-known characters where I can, and trying to stay within how they're represented and written in their source material. First up, let's do some Anime and Indy Comics.

Ogre Vs Luther Strode

One is the Strongest Creature on Earth, Yuujirou Hanma, The Ogre, the other is an urban legend, the greatest Disciple of Cain, Luther Strode. Both men bathe in combat and violence to a level that has made them living myths, virtual bogeymen who leave nothing but death in their wakes. Both are unarmed combatants par excellence, having pushed their bodies and minds to superhuman levels, conventional weapons are basically useless against them and there are few in the world who could hope to challenge their might. What would happen if these two masters of violence came to blows? Let's find out!

Yuujirou Hanma
Known as Ogre, Yuujirou Hanma is the Strongest Creature on Earth, a veteran of countless wars, master of many martial arts techniques and never defeated in battle. Due to the nature of how strength and fighting prowess are represented in the Baki series, quantifying just how strong Ogre is is pretty tricky. Whilst some of his feats, including punching an elephant the size of a house to death with one blow and being so fast on his feet that people can't see his movements, boarder on the superhuman, within his own setting, he represents the limits of human potential, rather than being a genuine superman. That said, as well as astounding physical feats, Yuujirou can manipulate his aura to terrify or enrage people around him and can assess the strength of his foes with sight and scent. Also frustrating for quantifying Ogre's abilities is the fact that he rarely actually fights anyone in the series, dispatching most of his opponents in one or two strikes. His fight with Baki is probably the only time we get a good idea of his limits, and even then, he's not fighting at full strength for most of the battle.

Luther Strode
Once a skinny teenage boy who was bullied at school, Luther's life changed when he ordered an exercise programme from a comic book and discovered The System, becoming a disciple of Cain. Luther quickly became an artisan of murder, a superhuman killer who was virtually unstoppable by conventional means. Able to resist the, now-constant, urge to kill somehow, Luther started on a crusade to end the legacy of Cain and use his powers for good. Luther is strong enough to bend steel and punch through people with his bare hands. Perfect conscious control over his body grants Luther resistance to damage up to and including small arms fire (he can "catch" bullets in his muscle fibers), accelerated healing and the ability to "switch off" pain and physical limitations. The System enables Luther to predict his opponent's moves before they happen, as well as spotting weakness and injuries. Unlike other disciples of Cain, Luther has passed beyond the primal urge to murder and has achieved an enlightened state through physical perfection, making him an equal of Cain himself.

Why We Fight
Thankfully, the narrative reasons for Ogre and Luther to fight are pretty solid and straightforward. Ogre is a mercenary and Luther is a wanted criminal with a fearsome reputation, so it's possible that he could be hired to bring Luther in or just kill him. Conversely, Ogre's abilities and reputation could conceivably lead Luther to believe he's a disciple of Cain and therefore want to hunt him down to either recruit or stop. Despite both of their lethal reputations, it's not guaranteed that the fight will be to the death, as Luther tries to avoid killing if possible and Ogre only kills when he has to or is being paid to, preferring to stun or cripple if he believes the opponent is beneath him. Luther is more likely than Ogre to try and avoid civilian casualties, but neither is going to start hurting non-combatants around them just to gain an advantage, either.

How Ogre Wins
Out of the two combatants, Yuujirou is the most likely to escalate the fight faster if he feels he has to. Luther fights reactively, only moving to lethal force to defend himself from the same, so if Ogre goes straight to his most powerful techniques, he has a decent chance of putting Luther down before he gets going. It all comes down to how fast Ogre can identify Luther as a serious threat (remembering he didn't think Baki was a threat until well into their fight). With his abilities to sense strength, it's pretty possible that Ogre will know to be serious from the outset, with the only caveat to this being that he rarely gets a serious fight, so the desire to really test himself may get the better of him. Ogre is also more willing to kill than Luther, so if he can get in a finishing blow first, he may get the better of Luther's healing. 

How Luther Wins
Luther's main advantages in this fight are his ability to sustain levels of damage that would kill most people and his history of fighting people with the same or similar abilities to him. Despite his strength, most of Ogre's attacks probably won't hurt Luther all that much and his recovery abilities will give Luther the higher level of stamina in this fight. Unless Ogre starts trying to kill, Luther will be attempting to talk him down (which won't work) or just incapacitate him as fast as possible. If Luther can withstand Ogre's attacks for long enough, he gets into a good position to win, especially once he's taking the fight seriously enough to start predicting Ogre's blows. Luther may also be able to access help from Petra and other turned Disciples, which means he has more to draw on if the fight turns against him.

Well, that's the first one of these down, I have at least two more in the pipeline, so let me know if you enjoyed this and what you think about reading more.

Superhero Media: The Subjects

A random DVD I picked up in one of my scavenging, runs through the store for new content, The Subjects bills itself as a "Superhero Horror Movie", but really is barely that. Made cheaply with a collection of Australian actors doing awkward American accents stuck inside a music studio I'm 80% sure I was in once, The Subjects isn't much really, but there are some good ideas to be had. For starters, any fan of Sean Micallef should really check this film out for the handful of scenes featuring Tosh Greenslade; no, really. The idea is that a group of people have volunteered for a drug trial, only the drug gives super-powers, until it kills you, that is. Now, this is an interesting premise, but the lack of budget really kills the concept before it can get off the ground. At barely 90 minutes, I don't get to know any of the characters enough to care about them when they die, which is a real failure for any horror film.

Again, there are clever ideas to be had in The Subjects, the whole drug trial concept would work pretty well with Cadmus, Lexcorp or Alchemex pulling the strings, almost reminding me of Rise of the Imperfects in a funny way. One of the characters, whose name I don't remember, is essentially a take on Molecule Man, though I don't think that's deliberate, but after seeing The Subjects, I get an idea of what an MCU Molecule Man could look like and be pretty interesting. Aside from that, the only interesting power that pops up is a character who can control air, including the air inside people's lungs. I can see that kind of killer, and of course the character is a killer in The Subjects, being an interesting antagonist for, say, Daredevil, The Question or even Elongated Man in the right setting. Like an evil Wind Dancer, for those who tune in for my deepest cuts?

Oh, Vampire the Masquerade players may also want to check this out for a great representation of the Obfuscation power "Vanish from the Mind's Eye" and a fun way clever players may be able to get around it. Especially any True Brujha that your ST was silly enough to let you play. So should you bother with The Subjects? Well, if you like cheap horror, sure. Maybe not so much if you're a superhero fan though, as there isn't much there there in that regard. If you were looking for an interesting way to start a "grounded" supers campaign perhaps, but honestly, you could just watch the trailer and save yourself quite a bit of time to get the gist of the idea. If Marvel Studios or even HBO or Netflix took another swing at this idea with a series and more of a narrative, I'd probably be keen, but I doubt I'll bother to watch this again anytime soon.