Superhero Media: The Fall of Phoenix Jones

An interesting YouTube documentary that a friend put me onto, The Fall of Phoenix Jones covers the career of Seattle-based "Superhero" Ben Fodor, AKA Phoenix Jones, who operated between 2011 and 2014, before being arrested for dealing drugs. The hour-long video is an interesting look into the reality of people who choose to put on a costume and patrol their local neighborhood for real. Unlike many other self-styled "Real Life Superheroes", Phoenix Jones was not content to help people out, or deliver food to the hungry, he went out seeking trouble and ending it with a mix of pepper spray and his backgrounds in the military and mixed martial arts. The high profile that Jones enjoyed, along with the "team" he assembled, the "Rain City Superhero Movement", launched him to a reasonable level of fame, despite the divisive nature of vigilante violence, and the continuing controversy of his life. For a better look at the whole story, check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8CkDrhZw14&t=2111s  

Ok, now let's have a talk about vigilantism. It can be easy to forget, with our comics, film, television and games, that violence is a big factor of justice, be it perpetrated by Police or anyone else. As a society, we tend to forgive violence perpetrated by the Police, even when such violence is directed against the innocent; as an anarchist, I'm really against the idea of the Police having a monopoly on violence, however, I'm not a fan of vigilantes either. In the four-colour world of comics, Batman stopping a mugging with his martial skills is a good thing, but Batman is an impossibly-competent fictional character, not a real person, and it takes only a few minutes thought to realise that Bruce Wayne, with his extreme wealth, could do more to help Gotham in a day than Batman could in a lifetime. We know, though research and painful experience, that the cause of most petty and violent crime is poverty. Punching people is rarely the solution to poverty. 

There is even a section of the video where Jones recovers two containers of laundry detergent stolen by a homeless man. Evidently, there is a way to get high off the detergent, but even putting aside the failure of drug prohibition, how is the homeless man helped by being accosted for a few dollars worth of soap? Jones is to be commended for the times he de-escalated situations and prevented further violence, but the majority of his actions only served to perpetuate cycles of poverty and harm, when they weren't outright criminal. Jones disdainfully calls other "heroes" who help feed the needy and make the world a better place through kindness, "LARPers", but the truth is that helping those who need it despite societal condemnation is far braver and more radical than punching a mugger will ever be. Want to be a real hero? Challenge extreme wealth. Champion ideas like Universal Health Care and Universal Basic Income. Shelter refugees. Stop buying Nestle and Coca-Cola products. Save the punching for the comics.

From the Archives - 10

I hope you're not sick of these, because we're only about halfway.

Bullseye: A really early repaint and one I should get around to replacing, as the sculpt is pretty poor. Heroclix 

Blazing Skull: Another costumed adventurer from the Golden Age for my Weird World War II gaming, his only real super-power seems to be being fireproof. Heroclix. 

Catgirl: Eventually, I'll need to get around to reviewing The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again to explain why I actually quite like the latter, but I do think Carrie Kelly is an excellent Robin and later Catgirl. Heroclix.

The Invisible Man: Part of my League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I kind of always meant to replace this model with a nicer one, but never got around to it. Reaper. 

The Question: Big fan of The Question, especially in Justice League Unlimited and 52, even if Ditko's original politics are offensive in the extreme. Heroclix. 

Riddler: Love this sculpt for this character, from the "Arkham" set if you're looking for it, really captures Nigma's cockiness and arrogance. Heroclix. 
  

Superhero Media: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Volume 2

For gamers of all stripes, the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is well worth a read, if not a purchase. Hot on the heels of the last volume, the titular League are sent to Working to investigate the impact site of a supposed meteor, only to discover a metal cylinder filled with cephalopod alien life-forms. Faster than you can say "but still they come", heat rays are deployed and the army is called in. Soon, Tripods stalk the land and the British government is scrambling to defeat the Martians before the country is overrun. Allan and Mina are dispatched to look for Doctor Moreau, whilst Hyde and Nemo battle the tripods from the Nautilus, but the Invisible Man has disappeared... I'll leave it there, because the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is worth reading for yourself, but be warned, this volume contains even more extreme violence and sexual content. 

Now, say you were running a campaign for Victorian age and/or VSF/Steampunk superheroes, a Martian invasion, complete with Tripods, red weed and black smoke sounds like a hell of a challenge for your players to face. Even the ones that can't physically stand up to the Tripods, like all of the League, can rescue civilians, research Mars and the history of the Martians or look for new weapons and powers to overcome the invaders. Maybe it's just me, but more and more as a Game Master or Campaign Arbitrator, I'm looking for non-combat solutions for players to find and use to "win". At the end of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, despite overcoming the Martians, the League is split and broken and the air is more of loss than victory, at least, until you hit the prose section. Rather than a single adventure, like "Allan and the Sundered Veil" in the previous volume, the feature this time is "The New World Travelers' Almanac", a guide to the fantastic places of the world to be found in classic fiction, like Gulliver's Travels, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and even Noddy. 

To take a cynical look, "The New World Travelers' Almanac" is simply a list of locations from literary and popular fiction viewed through Moore's lens, but what it really does is lay the groundwork for the later volumes of the series. Many of the entries describing fantastic lands are "written" by members of various Leagues, not just Mina and Nemo, but also Gulliver and even Prospero and Orlando. The introduction of Orlando is important as Mina, Allan and Orlando form a polamorous triad that will form the main body of the League through to the end of the Century series of the comic. For those looking for inspiration for pulp games, "The New World Travelers' Almanac" is worth a peruse for more exotic locales than the typical Atlantis, Mu and other "Lost Cities". Also introduced for the first time are Les Hommes Mysterieux, the French answer to the League, which includes Jean Robur, Arsene Lupin, Monsieur Zenith, Fantomas and the Nyctalope, which I'm sorely tempted to recreate in miniature.

Love letter to Clix

I love Heroclix, I think they're great. Which is one of my other niche opinions I'm so fond of voicing on this blog. In the superhero wargaming community, there is a certain subset that vehemently denies any value can be found in Heroclix, and that the figures are only a last resort when other brands and conversions fail. I've never really got this, possibly because of my chronic underemployment, as the affordability to quality ratio of the Heroclix is excellent, especially when compared to early Knight Models and if one is willing to try a few different variants to get the best one. Also the range of Heroclix available in Marvel and DC forms is pretty exhaustive; I admit I'd like a Plantman and a less cheesecake Raven, but being able to get Spiders-Man and Clock King is pretty damn cool. Even better than paying under $1 for a superhero mini on the Heroclix resellers is buying bulk lots from people on swap and sell pages, that's how I got characters like Jocasta, Weather Wizard and Spoiler, that I may never have gotten around to ordering individually. 

 All figures converted from Manchester Black (centre).

Something I've been doing with Heroclix for a while is using them as the basis for conversions, not just for other superheroes like my Skrull head-swaps and The Champions of the Omniverse, but also for other games, most notably Warpath: Firefight and Reality's Edge. So far for Reality's Edge, I've converted Hepizbah into a Tracer, Starlord into a Ninja, Plenty of agents into Corpsec and Manchester Black into a Hacker, with plans for more. Speaking of Manchester Black, I've used all five of him that have wound up in my hands for one thing or another. A shirtless punk in an overcoat and army boots isn't what many would likely think of a versatile miniature, but with simple head and hand-swaps, Manchester Black has become The Arsonist, fire-controlling Champion of the Omniverse, a zombie, a Street Thug and #Wizlord, decker for my Runner crew, as well as an unmolested version for SSUA games. Given that each copy cost me well under $1, I feel that I've got good value from that. 

Frostgrave characters converted from Heroclix and spare parts.

Of course, many of my Kill Team Aesir have Heroclix heads, though often I purchased them specifically, and the effect of Asgardian heads on the Deathwatch Space Marine bodies is pretty striking. I keep thinking of a way to build an entire army for a game, though perhaps just a small one, out of Heroclix, to demonstrate the flexibility of the range. Rather than doing something sensible, however, like making one of my (many) superhero army ideas, I'm trying to think up something less tied into superheroes generally, more in line with the Warhammer 40,000 universe or another existing IP. More projects for the pile, it seems. Anyway, give Clix a chance if you're the kind of wargamer who likes to convert figures and kitbash, there's a wealth of stuff there for not much money. 

Superhero Media: Dragon Ball Z Abridged

Sigh. I really didn't want to talk about this until I'd done all of the Dragon Ball I could get my hands on, and they'd finished making Dragon Ball Z Abridged (DBZA), because I know most people would be put off by my opinions. Then, about a month ago as of time of writing, Team Four Star announced that they'd be winding up production on DBZA for a number of reasons, and that, for all intents and purposes, the series was over. Great. Now I have to talk about it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy DBZA, find some episodes particularly hilarious, and like that it's drawn more people to the original programmes, but more and more often, it bugs me like nothing else. I have a good friend who had never watched The Simpsons growing up, and she used to get frustrated when everyone around her was quoting the programme and she wasn't in on the joke. Well, I am in on the joke, but I still get frustrated, why? Because some people have never seen the original, only DBZA. 

Well, is that really such a big deal? Kinda, yeah. Something Team Fourstar and I have in common is that we're all big fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, even the silly bits and the filler; there's plenty of evidence for that in the jokes of DBZA. Every episode begins with "Please support the official release", because DBZA is a parody and parody can only be done well by those who love the original. When I get to talking to someone about Dragon Ball and they admit they've only watched DBZA, trying explain that they've also missed half the jokes usually results in indifference and suggesting that they watch the Anime is difficult when the commitment is nearly 1000 episodes, plus movies and specials. Also, I wish some people in my roleplaying group would stop constantly quoting DBZA, but that's a different fight. 

I know without DBZA more than a few fans might have never found their way to Dragon Ball, one of my exes included, but that DBZA has become the ubiquitous version of the franchise is grating. It's like if people had become fans of Star Wars because of Spaceballs, or gotten into Spider-Man because of Superhero Movie; it's backwards. Again, for the record, I really enjoy DBZA, my favourite episode is "Episode 18", mostly because of the very Vaudevillian comedy runs and the first drop of the "I need an adult" gag. However, I want to live in a world where people don't ask my why my Goku stats for Ultimate Alliance don't have "Muffin Button" written anywhere, or ask about running a Mr Popo deck in FuZion; I mean, yes, you can run Popo, and it's not bad, but still. Animelab and Crunchyroll both have pretty much all of the Dragon Ball series and movies, check a couple out next time you need your fix, they're pretty funny and really engaging in their own right.

From the Archives - 9

Lead Capes will be moving to Tuesday and Friday posting for the time being.

I'm writing this in late March 2020, just as my State Government is about to put us all on lock down for coronavirus. I'm putting that here because I want to look back when it's all over and remember that I kept busy, even if it was just adding to the endless backlog for this blog.

Piloswine: I'm not sure where this one came from, can't remember buying it at all. I really don't even have much idea which game this Pokemon is from. It's an Ice type, I think? Toy. 

Roselia: From watching the anime and playing the games, you'd be forgiven for forgetting that most Pokemon are quite small. Not including the rock she's sitting on, Roselia is around 4mm tall. Toy. 

Leafeon: Another "Eevelution", this one after the application of a Leaf Stone. Toy.

Trapster: AKA "Paste Pot Pete", I first came across this character in late 1990s Spider-Man comics, where he has a completely different look and is trying to get himself back together to go straight. I really like that interpretation of the character and hope I can find the matching figure at some stage. Heroclix. 

Glaceon: Is there an Ice Stone? Is that how this one works? I'm not sure, as my days of keeping up with Pokemon games are long gone. Toy. 

Whirlwind: A classic Marvel villain for those who grew up watching the 1990s Iron Man cartoon on the "Marvel Hour of Power". Sure, he's usually more competent than that cartoon would have indicated, but still a nice punching bag for many heroes. 

Superhero Media: Avengers Age of Ultron

In all the retrospectives I've seen of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Age of Ultron tends to get skimmed over much of the time. Easily the weakest of the Avengers Quartet, Age of Ultron is still a really enjoyable film and an important tone-setter for what came in Wave 3. Blame for the "disappointments" of Age of Ultron is debated as being between the studio and Joss Wheedon, and after doing some research, I feel that the studio is more at fault in this instance. Now, I'm no auteur theorist, and tend to roll my eyes when directors claim they had their project "taken away" by studios, but in the case of Age of Ultron, a quick run though the "Deleted Scenes" clearly indicates that a fair bit of story was left behind. The missing sections built the idea of the Infinity Stones more, as well as foreshadowing the deaths of several characters; the Scarlet Witch "visions" sequences retain some of this, but it really seems like it was intended to be a major narrative through-line of the film. 

Disappointments in narrative aside, I really enjoy Age of Ultron, if only for the world-building and character development. Ulysses Klaw and Wakanda are introduced years before T'Challa dons the suit, the Vision is born, the Hulbuster makes its debut and the relationship between Hawkeye and Wanda begins. Oh yeah, Hawkeye gets to do stuff this film, being one of the major emotional centres and having some of the best lines, as it should be. Jeremy Renner really does a great job with this character, but that's what gets you two fucking Oscars to your name and still getting meaty roles when you've broken the rules by panning crap you were in. In fact, the interaction between the characters is probably the best part of of Age of Ultron, with scenes like the party, trying to lift the hammer and Cap and Tony arguing whilst splitting wood both memorable and well put-together. That's the real strength of the MCU films, they hire good people and let them work how they want. Check out the "Gag Reel" to see just how much the core Avengers actors enjoy working together. That's what makes good cinema. 

Yes, like many comics fans, I'm still a little sore that Ultron appeared before Hank Pym and is gone after just one film, but given how good James Spader was, I'm inclined to be forgiving. Killing off Quicksilver is an odd choice, but they get the Hawkeye/Quicksilver rivalry in there and given the shitty version that appeared in later X-Men films, I'm pretty happy that the character was sidelined from the MCU early on. Is Age of Ultron the "worst" Avengers film? Sure, why not? But that's kind of like saying Return of the Jedi is the "worst" original Star Wars film; accurate, but misses the point. Stan Lee gets sloshed on Asgardian Booze. Jarvis becomes The Vision. Falcon and War Machine join the team. More Thanos. I really don't get why people are so down on Age of Ultron, it's a fun ride with some great character moments, even if it's not one of the best MCU efforts. Maybe I'm just a sucker for more Hawkeye and Klaw. Anyway, give this one another go if you haven't since your pre-Endgame rewatch.